Ryan Adams (b. 1993), is an American composer and vocalist currently based in Tallinn, Estonia. His work focuses on the creation and combination of sounds to express inner and outer realities of the subjective human experience. His works strive to create a dialogue with works from the past in order to enhance and diversify the color palette from which he is capable of creating. This dialogue has been created in order to understand and create exploratory expressions which are multitudinous in meaning and dimension, allowing space for simplicity, complexity, and the many shades between. This being said, his compositional inspirations are tied to many fields of interest including visual art, literature, and mathematics. His works have been performed by Ensemble Fractales, YXUS Ensemble, the EMTA Sinfonietta; his orchestral works have been conducted by Toomas Vavilov and Paul Mägi. He has received masterclasses from Frédéric Durieux and Eugene Birman. Earlier this year, Ryan was awarded second place in the Rudolf Tobiase heliloomingu konkursi for his work “Constellations on a theme by Rudolf Tobias” and the EMTHAK Competition for Sentimental Densities, and was selected to compose an orchestral work for the 105th anniversary of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2023, his work emrof enilisüüf earned him a place among the finalists for the Morton Gould Young Composer Award. While completing his Master degree at EMTA, he studied primarily with Toivo Tulev; important mentors include Helena Tulve, Vera Stanojevic, Dina Lentsner, and Thomas Wells. Aside from his studies in composition, Ryan is an accomplished vocalist; he is currently engaged with Vox Clamantis and also performs with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Prior to these engagements, and his studies in Estonia, he has performed at the Oregon Bach Festival as part of the festival chorus, as a soloist for composers such as Jake Runestad and Eric Whitacre, and as a soloist at Carnegie Hall.
