8/19/24: Summer Festivals 2024
Madeline performed and taught in Europe, Africa, and the US as part of her Summer 2024 Festival schedule. She returned as Guest Concertmaster of Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León as well as the Grand Teton Music Festival with Maestro Donald Runnicles. Highlights included a Gala performance with Yo-Yo Ma. She also made her seventh appearance at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, performing on five evening concerts and teaching a masterclass, among many other educational activities. Madeline was also a faculty coach for the third time with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA) a program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.
3/29/24: Performance Today
Madeline is featured on the March 29th episode of Performance Today! Scroll down to hour two to listen to Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, recorded live in 2023 at the Grand Teton Music Festival, under the leadership of Sir Donald Runnicles.
2/3/24: Utah Arts Review: Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1
Madeline brought her “customary excellence” to three performances of Prokofiev’s 1st Violin Concerto, with Jun Märkl conducting the Utah Symphony. Utah Arts Review writes: “Prokofiev packs a prodigious number of notes into the concerto’s relatively brief 22 minutes—with most of them seemingly coming in the 4-minute virtuoso burst in the middle. Adkins didn’t appear to miss a single one, as she tackled the technical demands with clarity and verve.” Read the full review here!
12/1/23: Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo
Madeline traveled to Brazil to perform as Guest Concertmaster of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo for performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. Conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, and featuring renowned ondist Cynthia Millar and pianist Jason Hardink, the three performances took place at the aurally and visually stunning Sala São Paulo.
6/1/23: Summer Festival Schedule
In addition to her regular performances with the Utah Symphony, Madeline will be playing across the US and Europe this summer. Highlights include Ein Heldenleben with Maestro Donald Runnicles at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and a European tour and appearance at The Concertgebouw as Guest Concertmaster with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. Madeline will also teach at NYO-USA and Brevard Music Center.
1/29/23: Recital Series with Jason Hardink
Madeline embarks on a mini-tour of Utah with pianist Jason Hardink. Their wide-ranging program includes music by Camille Saint-Saëns, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Amanda Maier, Felix Mendelssohn, Olivier Messiaen, and William Grant Still.
1/31/23 @ 7:30pm: Russell Wanlass Performance Hall at Utah State University in Logan
2/6/23 @ 7:30 pm: Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College in Salt Lake City
2/8/23 @ 7:30pm: Recital Hall (1031) at Brigham Young University in Provo
1/7/23: Utah Arts Review: Scottish Fantasy
Madeline performed Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall on January 6 and 7, 2023. From The Utah Review:
“Adkins’ articulation was immaculate as she dove through the intricate, rapid-fire fingerwork… With smooth, songful phrasing, the soloist also brought rich interpretive depth to the sweet double-stopped harmonies”.
9/10/22: Utah Arts Review: Ein Heldenleben
The Utah Symphony opened its 2022-23 season with Richard Strauss’s epic tone poem Ein Heldenleben.
“Concertmaster Madeline Adkins gave a glorious performance, nailing the virtuosic passages with precision and panache and giving the lyrical passages a sweet lilt.” Read the whole review here!
9/5/22: “The Maze” Broadcast on WETA
For any DC listeners, hear a broadcast of Madeline premiering “The Maze” in June 2021 with conductor Marin Alsop and the NOI Philharmonic. Broadcast at 9PM ET on WETA!
7/10/22: Upbeat Podcast
Madeline talks with John Gennaro Devlin and Enrico Lopez-Yañez from “Everything Conducting”. They discuss the unique concertmaster/conductor working relationship, and Madeline reveals just a few of her dos and don’ts for young conductors.
6/2/22: Messiaen at Zion National Park
The Utah Symphony and Maestro Thierry Fischer performed Olivier Messiaen’s epic masterwork “From the Canyons to the Stars” at Zion National Park on June 2, 2022. 50 years ago, the French composer traveled to Utah and was in awe of the beauty of the landscape, especially Zion, Bryce and Cedar Breaks. He began sketching ideas that would become the massive 12-movement work, especially incorporating the beautiful birdsong that he heard. The audiences lucky enough to be present for this unique concert were able to hear this music in the very place that inspired it. The Utah Symphony then spent the following few days recording at Abravanel Hall in SLC for a release on Hyperion Records.
1/27/22: Western US Premiere of “The Maze”
The long-awaited performances of The Maze with the Utah Symphony took place January 27-29, 2022. (Originally scheduled March 2020…) From the Utah Arts Review: “Adkins established the violin’s presence with an intriguing solo passage evoking space and solitude...” Click to hear the whole work!
12/28/21: “On Music” Podcast
Madeline chats with composer, conductor, and teacher Anthony Plog on his podcast. They discuss all things Concertmaster and delve into some of what Madeline has learned in her 22 years sitting at the front of a major orchestra.
6/24/21: World Premiere of The Maze
After a pandemic cancellation in March 2020, Madeline’s commissioned new concerto “The Maze” was premiered on June 24, 2021! Marin Alsop conducted the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, in a special performance celebrating first responders and teachers. Learn more about The Maze and composer Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis here!
4/23/21: Utah Arts Review
“The Lark Ascending proved a perfect vehicle for Madeline Adkins. The work begins with a mini cadenza, which showcased Adkins’ effortless virtuosity. Throughout the piece, her interpretative gifts were wholly in the service of the musical narrative. The orchestra produced a rich, full sound over which her violin soared. The piece ends as it begins, with an extended solo and Adkins’s gradual decrescendo so held the audience’s attention that they sat spellbound for several seconds after the music had faded to silence.” Read the full review here.
4/22/21: A Tribute
Madeline dedicates her performances of Lark Ascending this weekend to her mom, who recently passed away. Alis Dickinson Adkins was a musicologist, organist, author, world traveler, and a mother of eight!
11/13/20: Utah Arts Review
Madeline led the Utah Symphony strings in works by Suk and Biber on four subscription concerts November 12-14. “The third movement Adagio shone brightest. Under Adkins’ direction, the Symphony string players approached this balladic movement with a free-flowing concentration that turned Suk’s expressive ambiguity into pure poetry. Read the full review here!
8/26/20: Utah Women 2020
Madeline is honored to be part of a new 5,000 square foot mural in downtown Salt Lake City that features 250+ past and present Utah women. The mural was unveiled on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, 2020 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment and the 150th Anniversary of the 1870 election in which a Utah woman was the first to vote. The artist is Jann Haworth, who is best-known as the co-creator of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album cover.
8/16/20: Grand Teton Music Festival
The online film project “Music from the Mountains” will stream from August 16-29, 2020. Madeline performs on three concerts including the grand finale: the Schumann Piano Quintet with pianist Yefim Bronfman!
6/15/20: Concertmasters Coast-to-Coast
Madeline is one of eight featured Concertmasters in a performance of the gorgeous slow movement of the Bach Double Violin Concerto! Watch the video here!
In addition, Madeline can be heard on the first episode of “Backstage Pass” from the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as the “Ghost Light” podcast where she discusses her work as a project manager for the Utah Symphony’s 80th Anniversary Celebration.
5/1/20: International Musician
Madeline is featured on the cover of the International Musician, which is the magazine of the American Federation of Musicians!! Read the article here!
4/25/20: More Quarantunes
A study in isolation: Madeline sets her own photography of solitary Utah to Biber’s Passacaglia.
3/27/20: Chamber Music in the Time of COVID-19
Hear the Fremont Quartet’s first foray into the brave new world of remote music-making!
2/15/2020: World Premiere Next Month!
Madeline will premiere her commissioned concerto with the Utah Symphony and conductor Kazuki Yamada on March 26 + 27, 2020 (POSTPONED DUE TO PANDEMIC)
Read more about The Maze by Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis. Nathan is a composer, pianist, and outdoor explorer whose music often engages with natural landscapes and wild places. Recent concert commissions include works about the mountains of New England (The North Country for sinfonietta), the history of conservation in the Rocky Mountain West (Nameless Empire for string octet and baritone) and a chamber piece about the Alaska Range (Heart Lung) premiered in Denali National Park. His orchestral and chamber music has been performed around the country by groups such as the Chesapeake Orchestra, the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, the Great Noise Ensemble, Corvus, and the Atlantic Reed Consort in addition to performances around New York City with his jazz piano trio Mob Rule.
Fremont Quartet steps in last-minute to perform Beethoven.
1/11/2020: Utah Arts Review
The Fremont Quartet performs on hours notice on the Utah Symphony subscription program. The quartet comprised of the principals of the Utah Symphony stepped in to aid ailing superstar mezzo Isabel Leonard and gave a “finely-crafted reading” of Beethoven Opus 18 No 2. Read the review here.
9/10/2019: SLUG Mag
Exploring the Human Experience of Music with Madeline Adkins
4/30/19: Utah Symphony’s newest recording features Concertmaster Madeline Adkins
The second disc of the Utah Symphony’s series of Saint-Saens’s orchestral works includes the famous Danse Macabre. Listen to Madeline discuss her approach to this solo with Michael Keelan from Kansas Public Radio.
2/20/19: “NOVA Chamber Music Series’ Reflections concert a fun grand slam of a musical experience”
“Reflections, the most recent NOVA Chamber Music Series concert, eloquently conveyed its theme in a cohesive, imaginative way that any artistic director should envy. Throughout the season, Madeline Adkins, NOVA’s music director, has expanded upon the organization’s unique branding for programming concerts with themes that elucidate new dimensions of music appreciation. Adkins really knocked this one out of the park.”
1/4/19: Utah Arts Review
Adkins’ Szymanowski Provides the Highlight in Utah Symphony’s New Year Program: “With her commanding stage presence she gave a robust account that captured the many subtleties of the solo violin writing. Szymanowski emphasizes the melodic aspect of the violin in this concerto and Adkins excelled in underscoring the fluid lyricism and soaring lines in her part. But she also dove into the challenges of the work with confidence, playing boldly and with conviction.”
12/13/18: Deseret News: “Utah’s Top 13 Superstars”
Madeline is included in The Deseret News’ list of 13 Utah Superstars!
12/10/18: Noteworthy Women in Music
Madeline is profiled as a featured artist at the Utah Symphony in January 2019. She shares her thoughts on women in classical music: “There are over 3.5 billion women in the world, and it seems incredible to me that we as artists could possibly be content not representing the life experiences and emotions of half the Earth’s people. The female voice is so important in music, film, and literature,” she explained. “There’s a richness to art when it delves into the hearts and minds of all kinds of people around the world.”
10/15/18: Utah Review, 15 Bytes, and the Utah Arts Review
Fantastic coverage of Madeline’s first concert as Music Director of the NOVA Chamber Music Series! A concert preview from 15 Bytes and glowing reviews from The Utah Review and the Utah Arts Review!
8/28/18: WQXR Blog
Madeline performed as Concertmaster at the Grand Teton Music Festival for Mahler Symphony No. 3, with Music Director Donald Runnicles on the podium. Listen to the entire performance here!
5/23/18: Deseret News
Read about Madeline's upcoming performances of the Korngold Violin Concerto with the Utah Symphony.
5/22/18: Spotify
Madeline curates a Spotify playlist in advance of her performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Get acquainted with the music of Korngold and learn about Madeline’s influences by listening here!
5/8/18: Utah Review
Scroll down to read a preview of NOVA Chamber Music Series's 2018-2019 Season!
4/30/18: Madeline talks about her experience at the 2018 Haitian Orchestra Institute
4/14/18: KSL News
Watch a short feature on Madeline and her Utah Symphony colleagues' trip to Haiti!
3/25/18: MOTUS blog on Tumblr
3/24/18: New Website
Read about former Toronto Symphony Concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch's life and legacy on this beautiful new website! Madeline is grateful to perform on Jacques' exquisite violin, the "ex-Chardon" Guadagnini of 1782, graciously loaned by his widow, Gabrielle.
12/20/17: Utah Review
Top 10 moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2017
"As the NOVA Chamber Music Series marks its 40th anniversary season, audiences are observing the rigorous standards of musicianship in concerts featuring Utah performers that would be admired and respected in any major metropolitan market. One performance stands out as a definitive moment of the Utah Enlightenment: Concerto in D Major for violin, piano and string quartet, Op. 21, by Amédée-Ernest Chausson (1892), as performed by Madeline Adkins, concertmaster of the Utah Symphony and Jason Hardink, piano, and accompanied by the Fry Street Quartet, which is in a long-term artistic residency at Utah State University. It was in the slow movement (the third), which produced a sound truly of an other-worldly beauty – the most heartfelt poetry of music one could experience.
That standard of musicianship likely will be enhanced in the future, as Adkins also becomes NOVA’s music director while Hardink takes on the role as artistic adviser. The innovative move in organizational structure is intended to add depth to NOVA’s unique programming model, especially in how it juxtaposes existing works in the chamber music series with new compositions."
11/20/17: Salt Lake Tribune
March 2017: New CD Review from American Record Guide
"Mendelssohn’s violin sonatas are unjustly neglected: only the first movement of an unfinished sonata is from his 16th year, the same year as his miraculous Octet. Two sonatas are juvenilia, written age 11 and 15, and the last from 1838 he left unpublished. So we have no complete violin works from Mendelssohn’s prime years. It’s a mystery that Mendelssohn hid the mature Sonata 3 in F, as it’s ebullient and stirring, cut from the same expressive cloth as his Italian Symphony.
Here Ms Adkins and Mr Magalhães are ardent and spontaneous, ecstatic, like mature Schumann—but Schumann had yet to publish any chamber music by 1838. The juvenile Sonata 2 in F minor would be the pride of any seasoned composer—it is masterly, dark, and profound, like the best early Beethoven, especially at the exceedingly moderato tempo in I; these players take 10-1/2 minutes where most take about 8. It’s a risky choice, and teases more adolescent angst out of a movement that can sound like a petulant snit fit at faster tempos. The soulful Beethovenian II is soothing, the grumpy Mozartean finale agitated and sec, where the fierce coordination of these musicians is breathtaking. The unfinished D minor Sonata comes next, fiery and brooding. It’s too bad Mendelssohn didn’t finish it.
His first childhood sonata comes last and owes much to Beethoven’s early violin sonatas. It’s playful and not at all profound. The performers toss off its considerable technical demands with ease. I thought the performers sounded distant at first, but grew to enjoy the realistic concert perspective and blend. Ms Adkins has a lovely and intense tone, very passionate. This is a desirable release in every way, and I have a hard time imagining the music done better."
January 2017: CD Review from Fanfare Magazine
"The playing by these two musicians is astonishingly good. It’s so good, in fact, that the highest tribute I can pay it is to say that if Mendelssohn were alive today to hear these artists play his completed sonatas, he would rush to dust off his uncompleted manuscripts and finish them, just to hear Adkins and Magalhães play them. Even if the performances were not as phenomenally good as they are, and the TwoPianists recording was not as immaculately clean, transparent, and beautifully balanced as it is, this release would still deserve strong commendation for including more of Mendelssohn’s violin and piano works on a single disc than any others I know. But the performances and the recording are magnificent, so, urgently recommended." --Jerry Dubins
11/11/16: Salt Lake Tribune
Profile of Madeline and her upcoming solo debut with the Utah Symphony
10/10/16: Ghost Light Podcast
10/8/16: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
New Utah Symphony Concertmaster Madeline Adkins Pays Tribute to Musical Family
8/20/16: New CD Review: Baltimore Sun
"Madeline Adkins, who starts as concertmaster of the Utah Symphony this season, was long valued as Baltimore Symphony Orchestra associate concertmaster for her sure technique and vibrant personality. Those gifts abound on this Mendelssohn collection.
Partnered with equal ease and nuance by pianist Luis Magalhaes, Adkins captures the lyrical sweep of Mendelssohn's F major Sonata from 1838. The youthful F major Sonata from 1820 inspires playing of great clarity and color, especially in the whirlwind finale. Adkins finds the drama in the F minor Sonata, Op. 4, as well as the poetic possibilities in the single, promising fragment from an unfinished D minor Sonata." --Tim Smith
8/5/16: Via WOSU
8/1/2016: Violinist.com
Madeline chats with Samuel Thompson at Violinist.com about finding her path.
7/1/2016: Via Two Pianists Records
Madeline's new disc of the Complete Mendelssohn Sonatas with pianist Luis Magalhães was released in early August!
Hear clips and order on Amazon!
12/10/2015: Baltimore Sun
"Madeline Adkins, the highly regarded Associate Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2005, and Assistant Concertmaster before that, has been appointed Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, effective September 2016.
Adkins will be missed around here, as much for her pristine technique and sensitive music-making as for her personal charm and dynamism."
12/10/2015: Strad Magazine
Madeline Adkins Appointed Utah Symphony Concertmaster
12/09/2015: The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah Symphony Hires New Concertmaster
10/05/2015: Review: Washington Post
"Stenz brought a feather-light touch and hushed dynamics to Mozart’s youthful First Symphony and glorious Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, which featured solo work of gorgeous timbre and Olympian poise from BSO Associate Concertmaster Madeline Adkins and principal viola Lisa Steltenpohl."
10/02/2015: Review: Baltimore Sun
"There is no mistaking the maturity of the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, written when Mozart was in his early 20s. The score offers a feast of melodic invention and, in the second movement, a peak of poetic thought.
Two of the BSO's star players, associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins and principal violist Lisa Steltenpohl, took the solo parts with confidence and style. Backed solidly by Stenz and the ensemble, they zipped nimbly through the outer movements; in the Andante, their expressive tenderness and well-blended tone yielded particular pleasure."
6/01/2015: New Recording
In June 2015, violinist Madeline Adkins will record the Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Felix Mendelssohn. Portuguese pianist Luis Magalhães will join Adkins for this release for TwoPianists Records. The recording will take place June 19-21 in the acoustically superb Endler Hall at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. The disc will include all three sonatas plus an unfinished 4th sonata only available in manuscript. Anticipated release is Spring 2016.
2/13/2015: Review: Washington Post
"BSO concertmaster Jonathan Carney and associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins then took the stage as soloists in Bach’s beloved Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor. The lively tempos now considered appropriate in baroque music can be challenging to contemporary string players with their different bows and techniques of using them. Nevertheless, Carney and Adkins acquitted themselves marvelously, particularly in the heartfelt slow movement."
2/12/15: New York Times
At Baltimore Symphony, A Cello and a Violin Make More Than Music
2/11/15: Review: Baltimore Sun
"The Concerto for Two Violins put the spotlight on concertmaster Jonathan Carney and associate concertmaster Madeline Adkins. They delivered superbly blended playing in tone and temperament; even their occasional slides were neatly matched. The violinists also enjoyed supple rapport with conductor and colleagues throughout, including the nearly breathless finale."