Meet Adam Sherkin

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adam Sherkin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adam below.

Hi Adam, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

From an early age, I strove to find both expression and excellence through creative outlets. I grew up in an artistic household and was encouraged to pursue musical and visual practices, even as child. Beginning my musical education at the piano, aged five, I evolved a passion for performance and by the age of twelve, I think I was hooked!

It took a little more time to coalesce my intentions and form an adolescent-minded commitment to musical pursuits, declaring at the age of sixteen that I would become a musician, This particular declaration wasn’t well received by all of my teachers and mentors at the time but I persevered, eventually studying piano performance at college and soon after, composition.

My very first piano teacher once posed the question to me like this: “Now, if you’re certain you want to be a professional musician, are you certain there isn’t anything else you would want to do instead?” If the answer was “no” then the calling was genuine and to be pursued. That same question has been one I now take with me, continuing to ask it to myself, particularly at times of forks in the road or when the horizon dims and creative goals feel less attainable.

The galvanizing of my purpose continued throughout my late teens and early 20’s. Once I identified that (youthful) purpose, I have since never wavered. Naturally, been periods of questioning have occurred along the way but the stage as originally set for my life’s success has ever remained. It is the taste – the profile – of artistic content that has ebbed and flowed through time; this is a good thing.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

At present, I enjoy far more activities in my career than just performing and composing. About five years ago, I founded a new company, “Piano Lunaire,” originating in Toronto then in expansion, we came to New York.

Under a Full Hunter’s Moon, Piano Lunaire was established as a contemporary classical music organization, pursuing the presentation of artistic excellence in the 21st Century. The company’s portfolio has since been three-fold: concert production, commissioning vibrant composers from the musical community at large and offer pedagogical and outreach support to emerging talent, ever from the piano’s vantage point.

This business has grown into a non profit organization; we are thrilled with the work we do and what we have accomplished in a short timespan. This has offered a platform for both myself and colleagues to engage with projects that bring us professional fulfillment and residual reward, especially highlighting members of the community that have been marginalized or overlooked in the past.

Piano Lunaire believes in the engagement and integration of composers throughout the process of creation, rehearsal and eventual presentation. By expanding Piano Lunaire to New York and beyond, we have found new ways to connect to the international musical community and welcome new artists to our roster. This invites fresh collaboration and insights to our programming, outreach and commissioning initiatives.

We value our audiences immensely and ensure the experience of our audience members at our events to be always dynamic, inclusive and intellectually stimulating. We are not afraid to challenge audiences and trust in their sophistication, curiosity and engagement with the abstract. [www.pianolunaire.org]

In addition to our mainstage concert series, “Composers In Play,” we have just soft-launched a new summer festival in New York, “High Summer Haydn.” Over evenings in July and August, as pianist/composer I present selections from Franz Joseph Haydn’s 52 sonata catalogue, alongside Haydn-inspired contemporary works for keyboard, including my own.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

In addition to the rigorous training classical musicians must complete, the most important areas of knowledge that have impacted my journey came from unexpected sources:

1) Self-presentation in my teens and early twenties felt like a novelty, something that was illicit even. But we persevered and learned the nitty-gritty of stage management, event production and and marketing.

2) POWER IN FINE PRODUCTS is a truth one should never forget. Many times, poor products are promoted and promoted well to consumers without very much substance behind the marketing and commerce. When you have a find product, well-crafted and rich in returns, you remain empowered as an artist, presenter and merchant (int he best sense of the word).

3) COMMUNICATING WITHE INTENTION TO CHANGE LIVES might sound like a tall order (and presumptuous) but performing artist and performing arts organizations must remember why we are in the game: to communicate, to express, to play and to sing in such a way that urges a listener to think about life differently, hear their world differently or even change their very soul. With aspiration as a kind of north star, informing everything an artist works towards, one can glimpse something larger than oneself – far nobler than any individual or their ego.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

They gave me the space, education and genuine support to become and artist and follow my creative dreams. They taught me to not fixate on financial security at the expense of happiness. They insisted that passion and creative purpose remain unsuppressed.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Wade Muir (photographer)
Copyright Wade Muir © 2022
Website: https://wademuir.ca/
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