Adam Tendler

Pianist Adam Tendler focuses on the music of contemporary composers, often advocating for progressive political causes. He has specialized in the music of John Cage, of which he is recognized as a major interpreter. Tendler was born in Barre, Vermont, in 1982. His family enjoyed many genres of music, including classical. Tendler took up the piano at seven and from the beginning showed a bent for composition, often playing music he had composed. He attended a public high school and gained notice playing recitals around northern New England, studying with jazz pianist Dick Shadroui. Tendler attended Indiana University, graduating with distinction after studying not only music but also the Swahili language, guitar performance, cultural anthropology, and the Feldenkrais Method of exercise therapy. He went on for additional studies at the Adamant Music School in Adamant, Vermont, but he struggled to find bookings and worked construction jobs for a time. At 23, all but unknown, he embarked on a 50-state piano recital tour he called America 88x50 (he drove to all of the lower 48 states but flew to Alaska and Hawaii). Tendler wrote about his experiences in a memoir, 88x50, which was also a coming-out narrative, and became a Lambda Literary Award nominee. Since then, Tendler has been active, in his own words, as a "concert pianist, queer author, experimental composer, educator at the local, university, and outreach level, and as a curator of concert programming geared toward community-building for performers and audiences alike." He has played music from Bach to the present day, often focusing on that of John Cage, and he has collaborated with the John Cage Trust and Cage's publisher Edition Peters in presenting the composer's music. Some of Tendler's performances have covered music even more adventurous than that of Cage; in Nathan Hall's Tame Your Man, for piano and bondage artist, he appeared tied to a piano. He also often performs traditional repertory, including a complete cycle of the keyboard works of Aaron Copland. In 2019, some two decades into his career, Tendler received the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. He has appeared on several recordings, including an album of Liszt's Harmonies poétiques et religieuses in 2021 with pianist Jenny Lin.
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