About Adam Simmons
Adam Simmons is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator, involved across many different scenes within Melbourne and beyond, performing contemporary jazz, punk, afro-beat, new music, traditional Japanese honkyo-ku, funk and free noise/improv.
Adam regularly performs internationally and has worked with artists from USA, Poland, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Greece and New Caledonia. His ensembles include Origami and the renowned Adam Simmons Toy Band.
Adam is currently teaching shakuhachi at University of Melbourne. He has curated various events including Festival of Slow Music, 100:25:1 (a series of one hundred duets), Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues (2017-18) and The Usefulness of Art.
Adam is endorsed by Forestone Japan (saxophones), Selmer (bass clarinet) and Temby Australia (flutes).
TUoA Background
This is the short version from Adam...
“Back around 1990 I was studying Improvisation at Victorian College of the Arts. As a young adult, one thing I was grappling with at the time was my place and value in society - what value is a musician compared to a tram driver or a banker or a cleaner? I found my answer by chance from the French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, in the final chapter of "Rodin on Art" - the title of which was "On the Usefulness of the Artist". Through his ideas, I found validation and inspiration for fully embarking on a career in the arts.
“Fast forward to 2012. I was having an existential crisis of sorts, trying to work out how to respond to seemingly disparate issues of Australia's draconian approach to asylum seekers as well as cuts to arts funding. Once again, it was Rodin who inspired me to do the thing that I do best to contribute to society, which is to create art. This resulted in the creation of two bodies of work entitled, "The Usefulness of Art" - a musical suite and my second solo show as a visual artist.
Then in 2016, I started considering how to step things up a level in my artistic activity and decided to present several existing and new major works. This became a two year concert series with five projects presented at fortyfivedowntairs involving numerous musicians, visual artists, dramaturgy and dance and the recordings have been released as a 5 CD box set. But at the very beginning, I was envsioning how TUoA as an umbrella could help build community through direct art experience as well as related activities such as mentoring, consultancy and advocacy.”
If you want even more background info, you can read Adam’s article written for The Music Trust's Loud Mouth E-zine.
