Peter Adams

Peter Adams is a Senior Lecturer in the Music Department of Otago University and a well-known conductor. Peter was educated in Dunedin, completing a Mus.B with 1st class Honours in 1981 at Otago University majoring in composition, conducting and clarinet performance. A Commonwealth Scholarship took him to London and King’s College where he completed a M.Mus in Theory and Analysis and studied clarinet with Georgina Dobree and conducting with John Carewe. Since his return to Dunedin to take up his post at the university, Peter has built up a fine reputation as a conductor and musical director working all around New Zealand.

Peter was Musical Director of the City of Dunedin Choir for ten years from 1987 to 1996, directing nearly fifty concerts of the major choir and orchestra repertoire. He has been the musical director for four Opera Otago productions and five university opera productions. He has conducted the Southern Sinfonia on many occasions including in subscription concerts, “Last Night of the Proms” concerts, and at the Aoraki Arts festival.

As a guest conductor Peter has worked with many of this country’s leading musical organizations: the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Orchestra of Christchurch, the Viva Chamber Orchestra of Nelson, and the Invercargill Sinfonia. He has had a long association with the Dunedin Youth Orchestra starting as a player in the late 1970s and then as a regular guest conductor over the last two decades. Peter has also been associated with St Kilda Brass for many years and has also conducted many of this country’s top brass bands. He conducted the NZ National Youth Brass Band in concerts at the Tianjin International Children’s Arts Festival, China, in 2012 and on a New Zealand tour in 2013.

Peter is also active as a composer, arranger, writer and adjudicator, and still occasionally blows the cobwebs out of his clarinet to perform in chamber music recitals!