Adam Levin | Guitar

Praised for his “visceral and imaginative performances” by the Washington Post, prize-winning and Billboard top-charting classical guitarist and recording artist Adam Levin has performed on four continents across the globe. Levin has performed extensively across the United States at renowned venues such as Chicago’s Nichols and Mayne Stage concert halls, as well as at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago; Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Jordan Hall; Spivey Hall in Atlanta; repeat appearances at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City; and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In Europe, Levin has performed in some of the finest venues across Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, China, Brazil, and Colombia. Adam Levin’s live performances have been featured nationally numerous times on NPR’s Performance Today, the nationally syndicated Classical Guitar Alive, and studio performances on top radio stations including WFMT Chicago, WCRB Boston, and RIPR Rhode Island.

Levin has toured across the US, including appearances at Guitar Foundation of America, Austin Classical Guitar, Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society, Old First Church in San Francisco, Boston Classical Guitar Society, Berklee College of Music, The National Gallery in Washington D.C, and Miami New Music Festival, and Austin Chamber Music. During the 2023-24 concert season, Adam toured with mandolinist Jacob Reuven (as Duo Mantar), violinist William Knuth (as Duo Sonidos), as well as a soloist. His guitar trio, The Great Necks, collaborated with mandolinists Jacob Reuven and Mari Carmen Simon.

The recipient of numerous top prizes, Adam Levin has been recognized by the Society of American Musicians, the Lake Forest Concerto Competition, Minnesota’s Schubert Competition, Boston GuitarFest, Concurso Internacional de les Corts para Jóvenes Intérpretes in Barcelona, Concurso Internazionale Di Gargnano, and Certamen Internacional Luys Milan de Guitarra in Valencia. For his promotion, interpretation, and performance of Spanish music, he was nominated for the 2011 Trujamán Prize, in which only three guitarists worldwide are selected annually. In 2020, the Community of Valencia, Spain nominated Levin as the Ambassador of Music, to represent the culture and music of that region. In 2024, Levin was selected among 160 panelists to give a TedxURI talk on the classical guitar and sustainable community-based music education models.

From 2008-2011, Levin was honored as a Fulbright Scholar as well as grant awards from the Program for Cultural Cooperation Fellowship (promoting cultural understanding between Spain and the United States) and the Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship, to research contemporary Spanish guitar repertoire in Madrid, Spain. His three-year residency resulted in a major collaboration with 30 Spanish composers spanning four generations, who each wrote works commissioned by and dedicated to Levin. In 2012, production began on a four-volume encyclopedic recording project with the classical label Naxos. The first two recordings in the series, 21st Century Spanish Guitar, Volume 1 and Volume 2, have been released by Naxos to rave reviews from Classical Guitar Magazine, Soundboard, American Record Guide, and featured Recording of the Month and Recording of the Year awards from Music-Web International. In November 2017, Naxos released Volume 3 of the series, with six world premieres of solo works dedicated to Levin, including pieces by three of Spain’s most renowned composers, Antón García Abril, Leonardo Balada, and Cristóbal Halffter, plus three works by rising composers Eduardo Morales-Caso, Laura Vega, and José Luis Greco. Volume four was released on the Frameworks Record Label in August 2021 with works by Morales-Caso, Brotons, Balada, Muñiz, and J.L Turina. It reached no.1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums Chart. Adam Levin as a member of the guitar trio, The Great Necks, released an album, Impressions of Spain, on the Navona label with newly arranged piano works, songs, and operas by Turina, De Falla, Granados, Mompou, and Ravel. Adam’s violin and guitar chamber group, Duo Sonidos released Wild Dance (Naxos Label), the first of three volumes of arrangements by guitarist/arranger Gregg Nestor, showcasing works by Foss, Szymanowski, Gershwin, Ravel, Ponce, and Korngold. Both the trio and duo albums reached the top ten on the Traditional Classical Billboard Chart.

Levin’s critically acclaimed discography also includes his debut album, In the Beginning [ALR, 2009], Music from Out of Time [Gober Records, 2010], and Fuego de la Luna [Verso, 2011], the latter showcasing the complete guitar works of Spanish-Cuban composer Eduardo Morales-Caso, a composer whose music Levin has championed since the launch of his career.

An avid chamber musician, Levin has performed with orchestra, string quartet, and various instrumental and vocal duo combinations. His chamber ensemble, Duo Sonidos (www.duosonidos.com), has been celebrated for bringing a fresh interpretation of chamber music to wide-ranging audiences across the globe while expanding the repertoire for violin and guitar through new commissions. Their current project features newly commissioned works by Brazilian composers Egberto Gismonti, Clarice Assad, Sergio Assad, Marco Pereira, and João Luiz. Adam is also a member of The Great Necks Guitar Trio (www.thegreatnecks.com) with guitarists Matthew Rohde and Scott Borg. Together they are exploring previously unthinkable orchestral works on three guitars. Finally, Adam’s newest musical partnership is with virtuoso Israeli mandolinist, Jacob Reuven, as Duo Mantar (www.duomantar.com). Together, they explore original and arranged music. Their album, Music from the Promised Land (Naxos, 2021) reached No.1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Album Chart featuring works by Israeli composers. In 2022, they will premiere newly commissioned double concertos by Israeli composers Avner Dorman, and will give future premieres of double concerti by Ziv Cojocaru and Ittai Rosenbaum. Currently, they are commissioning new works inspired by Vivaldi and Piazzolla’s Seasons, including works by Aziza Sadikova, Avner Dorman, Hamilton de Holanda, Clarice Assad, and Curtis Stewart. Duo Mantar and The Great Necks Guitar Trio will team up to perform Beethoven’s monumental Violin Concerto for mandolin and guitar trio, as well as Bach’s Double Violin concerto for two mandolins and three guitars. Levin is also teaming up with Mexican-Israeli-American cellist, Michal Shein to perform Vivaldi’s 6 Cello Sonatas in a fresh version for cello and guitar.

As an ambassador of the guitar, Mr. Levin is dedicated to sharing the guitar in underserved and unconventional spaces. He raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims and he was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to conduct hundreds of hours of innovative community work in Boston public schools, prisons, and rehabilitation centers. Demonstrating his long-term commitment to music advocacy, Levin founded Kithara Project (www.kitharaproject.org), a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of children and youth through the classical guitar. They currently run four year-round community-based guitar education programs in Boston, Detroit, Albuquerque, and Mexico City, enrolling approximately 130 students.

A native of Chicago’s North Shore, Adam holds bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University in Music Performance, Psychology, and Pre-Med. Levin completed his master’s degree in guitar performance at New England Conservatory in Boston. His esteemed teachers have included Eliot Fisk, Oscar Ghiglia, Gabriel Estarellas, Anne Waller, Mark Maxwell, and Paul Henry. Levin is a professor of guitar at the University of Rhode Island. Levin also serves as artistic director of the annual University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival (www.uriguitarfestival.org) and the Rhode Island Guitar Guild (www.riguitarguild.org). Adam Levin is an Augustine Artist and performs on guitars by luthiers Aaron Green, Stephan Connor, Dominique Field, and Greg Miller.