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xxxx��Ƶ’s 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient is about to distinguish himself even further, and in a big way.  

In October, British label CRD Records will release a new recording of what may be some of the most important works yet by xxxx��Ƶ alum Timothy Kennedy Adams, Jr. (BM ’83, MM ’87), an acclaimed percussionist also active as a composer.  

Along with his 8:46, a piece based on the murder of George Floyd, the new album will feature Harriet Tubman: Journey to Freedom, a 2022 work for orchestra and narrator whose short length greatly belies its profound impact and significance. 

“It was an honor and a privilege to put these sounds on paper,” wrote Adams in the program note to the album, Journeyism, which features the NYU Orchestra, conductor David Bloom, and Sydney Williams narrating original text by Adams. 

The choice to honor Tubman was easy, said Adams, chair of percussion at the University of Georgia and a former student of Paul Yancich, Cloyd Duff, and Richard Weiner.  

Her willingness to put herself in danger repeatedly in an effort to free others from slavery makes her a universal hero beyond the confines of race, gender, and time. Thus might a piece about her also have a shot at wide acceptance, of being performed on days other than the third Monday in January (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day).  

“I think of [Harriet Tubman] as the greatest humanitarian,” Adams said. “She was actually living how everybody on this planet ought to be living.” 

Composition was never part of the plan for Adams but has become a major part of his richly musical life.  

In addition to enjoying an expansive career as a performer – as principal timpanist of the Indianapolis and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras and a guest with many others around the world – he’s written all manner of concert and film music, played in a successful rock band, and penned a book of timpani etudes. He once appeared on the TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. With good reason did xxxx��Ƶ grant him a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020.  

Beyond that, he’s had a number of major works written for him. His artistry has inspired concertos for percussion from composers James Oliverio, Lucas Richman, Bill Banfield, and Larry Baker, among others. When he began contemplating Journey to Freedom, Adams sought advice from conductor Daniel Meyer, music director the Erie Philharmonic, his Pittsburgh-area colleague and a co-commissioner of the work along with the Akron Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and other groups.   

All of it started at xxxx��Ƶ. Drawn to the school by the prospect of studying with Yancich, former principal of his hometown Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Adams ended up surrounded by and steeped in new music.  

He never studied composition formally but he pursued music theory training intensively and regularly engaged with faculty composers. What’s more, he performed a great deal of new music as a student sub in The Cleveland Orchestra and member of various xxxx��Ƶ ensembles.  

Those experiences planted in him both the desire and the skill to write music of his own, starting him down a path that led to the creation, premiere, and recording of Harriet Tubman: Journey to Freedom.  

“That place changed my life,” Adams said. “I have a life in music because of that school.”