RYAN MCADAMS
CONDUCTOR
Press
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Zachary Lewis,
October 18th, 2012
CityMusic Cleveland
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine Shines in Program with CityMusic Cleveland
"A talented conductor can make a concert great...With Ryan McAdams on the podium...the evening kicked off the group's ninth season in scintillating fashion...
De Falla's 'Ritual Fire Dance' served as an ideal calling-card for McAdams, a rising star in the conducting firmament. Though short, the piece and his driven, strongly rhythmic performance of it managed to convey a boisterous musical personality....
A more complete portrait emerged from the conductor's performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. There, McAdams bolstered the impression of a fiery, detailed-oriented leader..most of the symphony sizzled...the performance McAdams elicited was generally one of great zeal and refinement...his Beethoven progressed with a vigorous sense of direction."
ClevelandClassical.com
Mike Telin
October 20th, 2012
CityMusic Cleveland
CityMusic with Ryan McAdams & Rachel Barton Pine at St. Stanislaus
"As we have heard during his previous engagements, the chemistry between McAdams and the CityMusic musicians resulted in a performance that was full of musical energy and refinement. Together conductor and orchestra overcame St. Stanislaus’ abundant acoustical challenges, which instead of resulting in a cacophony of sound, was one of clear musical detail.
This performance did not disappoint. The opening Adagio was appropriately mysterious, and the following Allegro vivace moved briskly with a light-hearted feeling, allowing for the passing musical lines to be clearly heard. The second movement, Adagio, was well-paced and possessed a special aria-like quality. The minuetto was brisk, and the winds passed the ascending and descending lines back and forth with aplomb. The trio flowed with spaciousness. McAdams didn’t hold back the tempo in the final movement, almost daring the players to keep up, but it worked beautifully. There was never a sense of breathlessness, and all musical transitions wove together seamlessly."
LondonJazz.com
August 13th, 2012
London Contemporary
Orchestra
"Review: William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops"
"The 40-strong, black-clad orchestra, under the pin-sharp direction of McAdams, slowly and purposefully built up the intensity from the merest hints of sound with an extraordinary delicacy and clarity that offered a surprising insight in to the lightness of what might have been Basinski's original looped elements...The orchestra's ability to tread such a light path with its flickering shadows in the process of revealing the gossamer tensions in Basinski's composition was a major feat. The beauty of this achievement lay in the response that each of the young players brought to the arranger's vision and the conductor's evocation of that unique environment that constitutes the melancholy, glimmering emotional range of Basinski's composition."
Downed in Sound
August 17th, 2012
London Contemporary
Orchestra
"William Basinski + London Contemporary Orchestra @ Queen Elizabeth Hall"
"As conductor Ryan McAdams signals the silence to a close, the room erupts....Across the room, there's a group of people crowded around a screen showing footage of the Closing Ceremony — it seems to be a montage of teary-eyed athletes crumbling with emotion. Right there, that feeling of entitled I-know-something-you-don't-know hits home. While the eyes of the rest of the world were fixed on the Olympic Stadium, a select few of us were privy to something genuinely affecting in its otherworldliness."
MusicOHM
August 12h, 2012
London Contemporary
Orchestra
"William Basinski: The Disintegration Loops with the London Contemporary Orchestra"
"The stoic performance of the London Contemporary Orchestra was impressive in its precision...the creativity of the orchestration was endlessly impressive...Both pieces played were utterly absorbing despite their formidable length; shimmering melodic figures dissolved into ethereal halos of sound, submerged beneath a sighing low end."
The Quietus
August 14th, 2012
London Contemporary
Orchestra
"Antony Hegarty's Meltdown Festival Reviewed"
"It's pretty astonishing. During the final, five-minute silence held by the conductor, my mind goes to involuntary work recapping and distorting what we’ve just heard. By the time we step out into the night, I remember something that sounded like voices."
New York Times
Anthony Tommasini,
May 28th, 2012
New York Youth Symphony
Young Players Raise Horns to the Hunt
"[In Mahler's Fifth Symphony], Mr. McAdams drew an energetic and involving performance from the inspired players...Mr. McAdams’s career started taking off while he was with the New York Youth Symphony....He proved himself again on Sunday.
Without a strongly shaped, clearly executed performance, this symphony can easily seem baffling...but Mr. McAdams drew vivid, colorful and often incisive playing from the young musicians. The finale balanced episodes of hurtling power with passages of delicacy and grace...The ovation went on and on as Mr. McAdams singled out players for bows and accepted many hugs."
Jerusalem Post
Ury Eppstein
May 20th, 2012
Israel Philharmonic
"Such a program of often-heard works can be welcome if the performance is extraordinary. This was indeed the case with 'Sheherazade.' The masterful conducting of the American Ryan McAdams impressively highlighted the work’s abundant tone colors, produced flexible, fresh-sounding tempi that had nothing mechanical about them, never leaving a dull moment, and created immense dramatic tension. Moreover, the orchestra sounded well-coordinated, excellently balanced and transparent and under perfect control. It was like hearing this familiar work for the first time."
New York Times
Anthony Tommasini, December 9th, 2011
Nicholas Phan,
Fred Sherry, etc.
"A Composer Still Vital in His Second Century" - Fred Sherry and Friends in Celebration of Elliott Carter's 103 Birthday
"It also offered the premiere of the major new score he composed last year, 'A Sunbeam’s Architecture,' an inventive, urgent 12-minute work for tenor and a 19-piece instrumental ensemble...The young tenor Nicholas Phan sang with sweet, full sound; rhythmic punch; and impressively clear diction. The excellent conductor Ryan McAdams drew a vibrant performance from an ensemble that featured major artists long associated with Mr. Carter and younger musicians who seemed thrilled to be a part of the evening."