Adam Zahller

Bio

Adam Zahller (b. 1988) is a composer, conductor, lyric tenor, guitarist, and songwriter based in Minneapolis. His concert works have been performed by ensembles including TAK, Loadbang, Zeitgeist and Duo Gelland. As a member of the Wandelweiser-affiliated experimental quartet Short Americans, he has performed alongside Manfred Werder and Kory Reeder, and appears on "by our faint shadows going before us," released on All Sky. He is the guitarist in the lower-case experimental quintet Realtree, led by cornettist/composer Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, with releases out on Public Eyesore and Zoomin Night. He appears regularly as a conductor and vocalist with the 113 Composers Collective, mounting works by composers including Richard Barrett, Aaron Cassidy, Joey Crane, George Crumb, Tiffany Skidmore, and Bethany Younge. He sings in the tenor section of Ahmed Anzaldua's award-winning Border CrosSing choir. A stalwart of the Minneapolis live music scene, he leads a rock band called Sick Eagle, a singer-songwriter project called Wheel Eternal, a minimalist art-rock project called Guitar Band, and various one-off groupings and improvising ensembles.

The Walker Art Center presented him as a guitarist/arranger as part of 2019's "Celebrating Henry: A Threadgill Festival" and as a vocalist/composer alongside the Merce Cunningham Dance Company during 2017's "Merce Cunningham: Common Time" events.  "On Meeting Again After a Long Absence," a collaboration with composer Luke Martin, was released on the Sawyer Spaces label in 2023. He was awarded the 2023 Denny Writing Prize in Fiction from St Catherine University for his text-based work for two cellos and voice "The Perpetual Ravine". In March 2024 he will appear in a lead role as Cupid in Tiffany Skidmore’s “The Golden Ass” presented by the Center for 21st Century Music in Buffalo, NY. He is currently at work on a solo record/book of writing, photographs, compositions and field recordings for All Sky titled "HO LE".