Adam Sweet
Belchertown, MA
You do not have the current Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to upgrade Adobe Flash Player
You do not have Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to install Adobe Flash Player
About
Biography of a Fiddler
I was born in Boston, May 24 of 1962 (a good year) the 2nd son of 3 boys and a girl. My parents thought it would be fun if all of their kids could play instruments. I volunteered for the violin. They took me to a pilot Suzuki violin program at Dana Hall in Wellesley, under the auspices of the New England Conservatory of Music. I graduated with a certification of completion in 1980.
At Hampshire College in Amherst, I studied music therapy and ethnomusicology.
College Musical Organizations Included:
Five College Symphony Orchestra 1980-1985
Backwoods Medicine Bluegrass 1984-1985
Lonesome Fish Quintet 1983-1984
Pieces of Neck Bluegrass Band 1980-1983
I graduated Hampshire in 1985 with a BA in Music.
In 1986, I started my private lesson studio. In 1988 I moved the studio to Shelburne. I joined Maple Ridge Bluegrass in '89 on mandolin and fiddle, and began teaching mandolin as well as violin/fiddle & viola. I moved the studio finally to Belchertown, where it has been since 1997.
In '95 I met Brian Bender, who encouraged me to seek my roots music. I spent six weeks in Ireland the summer of '96. Of course I brought my fiddle and played in every pub and ale house from Cork to Clare, Donegal to the Dingle! Upon returning I added Irish music to my teaching repertoire.
Joe Blumenthal recommended I look into setting up a studio at the Northampton Community Music Center and so I joined that establishment in 1997. I also joined the Keene Institute of Music and Related Arts, which is now simply called the Keene Community Music Center. I did some website consulting for the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in '99, and joined the Keene Chamber Orchestra on viola.
1997 was the year Woodkerne started up at Fire & Water Cafe with Peter Siegel on guitar and mandolin, Dan Richardson on bodhran, me on fiddle & mandolin and John on banjo. In 1998, I started Sweet Consultants, a Sales & Marketing Consulting Agency. Peter Siegel quit the band in '99 and Paul Burton joined up in December. The band began working towards a CD in '00, but Dan dropped out in the spring due to an arthritic condition rendering his drumming impossible. Andy Wiener joined on bodhran for some summer gigs and stayed on to finish the first CD - Deforestation, recorded in '02 at Avocet studios in Shelburne.
My first trip to China was in 2002. I traveled to Harbin, then to Anping, the two most important horse hair processing cities in the world. It was there that I became an expert in bow hair. You can watch some videos of my trips to China here. In 2003, I traveled to Musik Messe in Frankfurt, Germany and shared a booth with Horst John and friends (what fun!).
In 2003, I met Emily, the love of my life. She was already involved in import/export as the Shenyang Bureau Chief for Hanjin Shipping, the 3rd largest container company in the world. We decided to start Emily's Violin Co., Inc. in 2004 for trading violins, violas, accessories and other supplies between vendors in China and buyers in the western world. We were married in November of 2005.
Stats
- Plays today
- 0
- All-time plays
- 17
- Profile views
- 384
