Jacob Adams Concert Pianist Ragtime Encore

Jacob Adams Concert Pianist
July 15th Performance Our Lady of the Rosary Parish St. Pascal Church
Presented by the OLR Music Ministry
Born and raised in the Twin Cities, MN, Jacob’s musical interests were sparked upon listening to his parents’ Beatles LP’s when he was growing up. Formal percussion lessons commenced shortly after receiving a toy drum set for Xmas when he was 5, and piano lessons followed at the age of 10. Throughout adolescence he was active in school and throughout the Twin Cities area as a church and theater accompanist as well as a recitalist.
In 2003 he began undergraduate and later graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Van Cliburn silver-medalist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance. During this time, he was also privileged to solo with a number of orchestras throughout the Midwest and East Coast. In 2009 he began studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, earning a DMA in piano performance and literature as well as an MM in piano pedagogy.
In 2012 he moved back to his native Minneapolis, MN, where for the next 4 years he taught private and group piano lessons, accompanied choirs at various churches, as well as continuing his collaborative and solo work. In 2016 he began a 6-month stint playing piano aboard Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, and in the spring of 2017, moved to Chicago, IL where he currently resides with his wife Sarah. While in Chicago he has been highly active as a teacher, church musician, collaborative pianist, and soloist. He has been the pianist/organist for Our Lady of the Rosary Parish since 2021.
Jacob is also an avid ragtime musician and composer, having been introduced to the style by his father in 1996. He has written over 90 original ragtime works in addition to more “classical” styles, and has been an active performer at a number of ragtime festivals throughout the country, such as the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, MO, and the Cape Cod Ragtime Festival in Massachusetts. He has placed three time in the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest (2011, 2013, & 2023) and has won the New Rag Contest there three times, in 2010, 2017, & 2018.