Violinist Elizabeth Adams has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Russia. She holds both an MM in violin and a BA in Russian studies from Yale and a doctorate from l’Université de Montréal. As an undergraduate, she had the opportunity to study violin and Russian language in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Adams has studied chamber music with members of the Borodin and Tokyo String Quartets. She studied piano and chamber music with Anna Balakerskaia and performed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Piano 300 exhibition. In addition, she has participated in summer festivals such as Meadowmount, Orfeo, Schlern, and Soesterberg as both a violinist and pianist. Her teachers include Mikhail Gantvarg, Vladimir Landsman, Ani Kavafian, and Ricardo Cyncynates.

Adams has studied pedagogy extensively in both Russia and North America. Her doctoral thesis compares the approaches of pedagogues Yuri Yankelevich and Ivan Galamian. She is a former faculty member of the McGill Conservatory of Music in Montréal, the Levine School in Washington, D.C., as well as the Orfeo Festival in Italy; in New Haven she taught at an underprivileged public school and at Neighborhood Music School. Her students have been accepted at the Montreal Conservatoire, received highest marks on McGill/Royal Conservatory examinations, and been prizewinners in numerous competitions.

Since moving to Washington, Adams has been in demand as a performer, teacher, adjudicator, and clinician. She is a frequent coach for the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras (of which she is an alumna) and is pianist for their Music Buddies mentorship program. As a freelancer she has performed with groups including the Richmond, Annapolis, and Vermont Symphonies, Virginia and Baltimore Operas, National Philharmonic, and the Nouvel ensemble moderne. She an active violinist/violist and promoter of new music and plays with the Kassia Music Collective.

Recent solo performances include the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Mason Symphony Orchestra; chamber music and recitals at the Church of the Epiphany, the Lyceum, and Redpath Hall. Adams joined the George Mason University School of Music as professor of violin in 2013 where she served as head of strings until 2016. At Mason she has taught violin, viola, pedagogy, and coached chamber music. Adams is pleased to be on the roster of mentors at National Music Festival, and on the faculty of the Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore, Md.