"...a new genius of the piano, capable of obscuring the legacy
of the legendary interpreters of our epoch."
- Corriere dell'Umbria
Hailed as one of today’s preeminent American classical pianists, Adam Neiman has cultivated a breathtaking career spanning more than three decades and traversing four continents. Possessed of an encyclopedic repertoire – nearly seventy piano concertos, dozens of diverse solo recital programs, and virtually the entire canon of standard chamber music – Mr. Neiman has been acclaimed as a thought-provoking, charismatic, and highly virtuosic performer.
Born in 1978, Mr. Neiman’s trajectory as a concert pianist began at the age of eight, immediately blossoming with a succession of regional and national competition triumphs, recital and concerto appearances across the United States, and successful forays onto the international concert and competition circuit by his early teens. After making his Los Angeles concerto debut at Royce Hall at age 11, Clavier Magazine wrote, "Adam Neiman gave a performance that rivaled those of many artists on the concert stage today...his playing left listeners shaking their heads in disbelief." At fourteen, he debuted in Germany at the Ivo Pogorelich Festival, and at fifteen, he won second prize at the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy, the youngest medalist in the competition's history. During his freshman year – as a 17-year old undergraduate at the Juilliard School – Mr. Neiman won three of America’s most prestigious classical music awards: an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Nominated during the same year for a Grammy Award, he subsequently graduated from the Juilliard School in 1999 as a recipient of the school’s highest honor: the rarely-bestowed Artur Rubinstein Award, and as a two-time winner of its Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.
Mr. Neiman went on to make debuts with prestigious symphony orchestras across the globe, including those of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Slovenia, Umbria, and Utah, in addition to the Sejong Soloists, New York Chamber Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. He collaborated with many of the world’s celebrated conductors, including David Atherton, Jiri Belohlavek, Michael Francis, Giancarlo Guerrero, Theodor Gushlbauer, Carlos Kalmer, Uros Lajovic, Yoël Levi, Andrew Litton, Rossen Milanov, Heichiro Ohyama, Peter Oundjian, Leonard Slatkin, Osmo Vänska, and Emmanuel Villaume. As a recitalist, Neiman performed in major cities and concert halls throughout North America, as well as in Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Serbia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.
Mr. Neiman’s current season includes concerto appearances in Illinois and Montana (performing the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, and his own Piano Concerto No. 1). His current activities also include solo recitals and chamber music performances in Chicago, Seattle, Las Vegas, Greenville (NC), Georgetown (TX), and Manchester (VT). In past seasons, Neiman premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2, and he extensively toured and recorded three monumental solo projects: the complete Liszt Transcendental Études (2017 Aeolian Classics, DVD), Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata paired with the Diabelli Variations (2018 Aeolian Classics, 2-CD set), and Rachmaninoff’s complete Preludes, Études-Tableaux, & Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie (2018 Aeolian Classics, 3-CD set).
A sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Neiman regularly appears at festivals across the globe. Initially a founding member of the Corinthian Trio (with violinist Stefan Milenkovich and cellist Ani Aznavoorian), Neiman later became a member of Trio Solisti for three seasons, capping his tenure with the ensemble with a presentation of the complete chamber music of Brahms at Carnegie Hall in 2015. His affiliation with Trio Solisti culminated in three critically acclaimed chamber music recordings on Bridge Records, adding to his already extensive catalogue of recordings released on BHM, Lyric Records, MSR Classics, Naxos, Onyx, Sono Luminus, and VAI.
Mr. Neiman is an accomplished composer, with a catalogue of compositions that includes two symphonies, two piano concertos, a string quartet, and various solo and chamber works. Recent commissions include his Piano Concerto No. 2, Piano Trio No. 2 for Clarinet, Violin, & Piano, and his String Quartet. Various documentary film appearances as a pianist resulted in his eventual contribution as a composer to the PBS documentary by Emmy Award-winning director Helen Whitney entitled: “Forgiveness, A Time to Love and a Time to Hate.”
Beyond his creative activities as a pianist and composer, Mr. Neiman is a tenured Associate Professor of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he also serves as Chair of the Music Conservatory. From 2016 - 2022, he served as Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, and he is the founder and CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC. Aeolian Classics – in addition to releasing top-tier classical music recordings – co-sponsors an annual music competition at Roosevelt University entitled the Aeolian Classics Emerging Artist Award. The yearly laureate receives a debut CD album, produced and distributed by Aeolian Classics.
Mr. Neiman’s studies commenced at age five – first under the guidance of his mother, Lea Neiman, then privately with Trula Whelan, Hans Boepple, and Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE. At 17 years old, Neiman entered the Juilliard School, studying principally with Herbert Stessin while also working closely with György Sandor and Jacob Lateiner. He graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance.