Past Member of Board of Directors
Norman Adams is Principal Cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Artistic Director of suddenlyLISTEN music. A student of Hans Jørgen Jensen, Bernard Greenhouse, and American new music pioneer Pauline Oliveros, Norman has been a soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal. He has been guest principal cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and has performed chamber, and improvised music throughout Canada, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. His performances have also been heard across the country on CBC Radio. As an educator, Norman has served on the faculty at Acadia University, at Scotia Festival of Music, and the Acadia Summer Strings Festival.
In addition to his work as a classical cellist, Norman is well known as an improviser and electronic musician, playing free and creative music across North America and Europe. Norman has collaborated with many leading artists including Joëlle Léandre, Gerry Hemingway, Eddie Prévost, Pauline Oliveros, Buck 65, Jerry Granelli, Marilyn Crispell and Evan Parker.
Since 2000 Norman has been the Artistic Director and Producer of suddenlyLISTEN Music, an organization that both presents an annual series of concerts of improvised music, featuring a broad range of local, Canadian and international artists; and produces a wide range of other performance projects and public workshops.
Norman is dedicated to the arts community, and serves on the national board of The Canadian New Music Network, as well as on the boards of The Canadian Circuit, The Nova Scotia Masterworks Awards Foundation, and Strategic Arts Management. He is a former board member of Symphony Nova Scotia, and has served on juries for the The Canada Council for the Arts and various Nova Scotian arts funding bodies and organizations.
In 2010, Norman was awarded an Established Artist Award by the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Partnership Council for his varied work.
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