ADAM TURNER
CONDUCTOR
BIOGRAPHY
Currently in his sixth season as Artistic Director of Virginia Opera (following four seasons as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor), Maestro Adam Turner garners critical acclaim for the breadth of his repertoire, artistic vision, and polished technique. Of his performance of Street Scene with Virginia Opera, Opera News hailed the “sensitive conducting” of Adam Turner “who demonstrated an affinity for a score as stylistically diverse as the characters in the plot” and of his conducting of Der Freischütz, Opera News hailed: “Conductor Adam Turner … ensured crackling rhythms as much as lyrical spaciousness, resulting in a performance that felt vital and spontaneous throughout.” In the 2023-2024 Season at Virginia Opera, Turner will be on the podium for productions of Siegfried and Madama Butterfly, in addition to leading workshops of the world-premiere commissioning of Loving v. Virginia by Damien Geter and Jessica Murphy Moo. Further appearances this season include his début with the Pacific Symphony for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a return to Toledo Opera conducting Roméo et Juliette, and Central City Opera’s Street Scene. Also this season, Turner will conduct Virginia Symphony’s To Whitney with Love featuring American Idol-finalist LaKisha Jones in a celebration of the great ladies of soul.
In recent seasons, he has conducted Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, La bohème, Three Decembers, Le nozze di Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance, Fellow Travelers, and La Traviata at Virginia Opera. Appearing with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in the “POPS! Concert Series” he has led programs including “Never Break the Chain,” featuring the music of Fleetwood Mac, “Broadway Rocks,” and “Music of the Bee Gees.” He was also recently at the helm for Central City Opera’s productions of Kiss Me, Kate and The Light in the Piazza, Toledo Opera’s Il trovatore, as well as Portland Symphony Orchestra’s concert “Classical Broadway.” [read more...]
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"...Turner believes the best art is born outside of comfort zones..." – Washington Classical Review
Samson et Dalila – “Luckily, Virginia Opera has a conductor/artistic adviser in Adam Turner who absolutely relishes in taking on creative challenges. Turner believes the best art is born outside of comfort zones, in uncharted territory – not only for the audience’s sake, but for the artists’ as well.”
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"… ensured crackling rhythms as much as lyrical spaciousness..." – Opera News
Der Freischütz – “Conductor Adam Turner … ensured crackling rhythms as much as lyrical spaciousness, resulting in a performance that felt vital and spontaneous throughout.”
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"...drawing impressively nuanced playing from the Virginia Symphony every step of the way... ” – Opera News
Sweeney Todd – “For its fortieth anniversary, Virginia Opera slid into Broadway repertoire to deliver a highly satisfying account of Stephen Sondheim’s ever-chilling Sweeney Todd, one of the organization’s strongest ventures of the past decade or so….The chorus sustained a hearty, well-balanced tone. Adam Turner conducted a stylish account of the score, drawing impressively nuanced playing from the Virginia Symphony every step of the way. ”
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"...kept the orchestra sounding high-spirited, and the well-cast chorus energized..." – The Washington Post
HMS Pinafore – “Conductor Adam Turner kept the orchestra sounding high-spirited, and the well-cast chorus — with the men smartly decked out as sailors and the ladies glammed up in park-strolling gowns with parasols — energized with crisp singing and choreography.”
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"...did a marvelous job of leading the company’s orchestra..." – Washington Times
Carousel – “Adam Turner also did a marvelous job of leading the company’s orchestra in an almost perfectly calibrated counterpoint to the company’s singers. The orchestra really had a chance to shine in Act II’s extended ballet sequence as well as in a modified version of this show’s memorable ‘Carousel Waltz’.”