Violinist Richard Adams has Died, Aged 94

Adams was the former assistant concertmaster of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years

Richard “Dick” Adams began his violin studies at age six with his father, who was a tutti violinist of the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra) for 22 years. 

At age 14, Adams made his solo orchestral debut with the Minneapolis Symphony under conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Two years later, he won a four-year scholarship to study with Ivan Galamian at The Juilliard School. 

He later won the concertmaster position with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, but the draft intervened — he played in the Air Force Orchestra for four years, and in solo recitals across Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.

After the Air Force, Adams became concertmaster for the American Ballet Theater Orchestra. In 1956, at the invitation of conductor Antal Dorati, Adams began serving as assistant concertmaster of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. 

He retired in 1991 after 34 years with the symphony. He then moved to Florida, where he played with the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. He returned to Minnesota in 2008. 

As an educator, he taught at the University of Minnesota and Hamline University. Adams performed on the 1763 Gennaro Gagliano violin.