About
It all started when…
Adam Karelin is an arts leader, conductor, and composer who makes music and empowers others to make music. He was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Riverside Arts Academy, and will take up his post in summer 2023.
Karelin holds an M.S. in Arts Leadership and a B.M. in composition with a minor in linguistics from USC. He graduated valedictorian and in his master’s was named the USC Thornton School of Music’s Outstanding Graduate.
Karelin’s music has has been performed from Los Angeles to Helsinki, including premieres by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Thornton Symphony Orchestra, Thornton Edge, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony Fellows, the Hear Now Festival, and others. His 2019 piece for large orchestra, Constructs, received the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Award. Karelin also received the New Music for Orchestra prize at USC for his guitar concerto, Barcarolle.
As a composer, Karelin explores his identity as a child of the Ukrainian-Jewish diaspora. He is the founding artistic director the Slava Festival, which debuted in April 2023 with the Thornton Edge ensemble, in partnership with Stand with Ukraine Foundation and the USC Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Edge premiered his multi-movement oratorio, Forget your past, as part of the festival.
During his tenure as the Music Director of the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC, Karelin brought the organization into collaboration with animators, choreographers, and composers from around the world, receiving the Mehrle Service Award in 2021. His work was driven by his belief that music can bring people together and tear past traditional constraints of genre. Through his work, the orchestra diversified its repertoire, championing music by underrepresented composers. Karelin also served as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival.
His mentors and teachers have included Kenneth J. Foster, Donald Crockett, Larry J. Livingston, Robert Spano, Andrew Norman, and Brett Banducci.
In his spare, Karelin roasts coffee beans, hikes, and reads up on the latest linguistics research.