Madeline Adkins joined the Baltimore Symphony in 2000 as Assistant Concertmaster and was elevated to Associate Concertmaster in 2005 by then conductor Yuri Temirkanov. She has most recently been playing under Maestro Marin Alsop.
So what the heck was she doing in Columbus Ohio?
Madeline is in transit with her husband and four cats, which has to add travel time, on their way to Utah. She has family here who are Buckeye grads and fans. She says that has translated into enough Scarlet and Gray clothing to cover every day of the year. or at least a year's-worth of football Saturdays! Wait, we were discussing music. Where was I? Oh yes.
Why would she leave the Baltimore Symphony to move to Utah, you ask? Madeline will be the Concertmaster for the Utah Symphony beginning this coming season, working with Conductor Thierry Fischer.
Fischer is doing remarkable things in Utah and Adkins has been given a leave of absence to accept the position. Quite frankly, you can't really turn down the opportunity to be Concertmaster.
Madeline and I discussed her move and a bit of her background.
She has a recording of MendelssohnViolin and Piano Sonatas that was just released. We know Mendelssohn's symphonies, his Octet, Midsummer Night's Dream, but these trios are a special look at one of classical music's brightest stars.
I hope all of us will soon have the opportunity to hear Madeline Adkins in a live performance. Radio and recordings are great and portable, but hearing her play in the same room and the incredible sound that she caresses from the violin, in this case, a 1753 Guadagnini graciously loaned to her by conductor Marin Alsop, it is really an indescribable experience.