CBA Ode to Joy

Jacob Adams, Pianist Born and raised in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Jacob Adams found his musical interests sparked upon listening to his parents’ Beatles LPs when he was five years old, with Ringo Starr being his favorite. Percussion lessons followed shortly thereafter, and piano lessons commenced when he was ten. Throughout high school he was active in school and throughout the Twin Cities area as a church and theater accompanist and recitalist. In 2003 he began undergraduate and eventually graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Van Cliburn silver medalist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees

in piano performance. During this time, he was privileged to solo with several orchestras in the Midwest and East Coast and also remained active as an accompanist, recitalist, and tutor. In 2009 he commenced studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, earning both a DMA in piano performance and literature and an MM in piano pedagogy. While there he also taught piano to undergraduate non-music majors. In 2012 he moved back to his nativeMinneapolis where for the next four years he taught private and group piano lessons, was an accompanist at various churches, and performed as both accompanist and piano soloist. In 2016 he began a six month stint playing piano for Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, and since the spring of 2017, has been living and working in Chicago, where he teaches, accompanies, and is the Director of Music and Liturgy at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. He has been immensely enjoying working as the accompanist for the DePaul Community Chorus since September 2018. Adams has been an avid ragtime musician since 1996, when, at his father’s behest, he learned Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. Immediately he began collecting ragtime sheet music and recordings; with the advent of the internet, those pursuits became much easier. In 1999 he began composing his own ragtime pieces, and has since written over 50 works, although in recent years he has branched out and written in other styles as well. In 2009 he began performing at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and has performed at a number of other ragtime festivals throughout the Midwest and East Coast. He has twice placed within the top five performers at the Old-Time Piano Playing Championship (2011 and 2013) and his original rags have won the New Rag Contest three times (in 2010, 2017, and 2018).

Don Mead, Niles Metropolitan Chorus Accompanist Accompanist and rehearsal assistant for the Niles Metropolitan Chorus, Don Mead has been with the NMC since 2016. He began playing the organ at Saint Luke, Chicago on Christmas Eve 2012. He provides musical leadership in the worship services and also teaches music classes for Saint Luke Academy. Don began playing the organ as a child, but formal lessons began as a college freshman with his father, Gil Mead. Gil Mead was a well-known radio musician from WMBI of Moody Bible Institute. Don later studied with David Schrader.

Don enjoys a very wide range of musical activities. He is a professional cellist and a founding member of the Chicago Sinfonietta. Notable performances include an organ recital at Holy Name Cathedral and an appearance as solo cellist with the Joffrey Ballet in a choreographic performance titled “Reflections” in which he played Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations” with company pianist Paul Lewis. Don enjoys work as a studio teacher to piano and cello students of all ages.

20 ODE TO JOY