AMADI HUMMINGS, Assistant Professor
Amadi Hummings, conductor and violist, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Hummings has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He has appeared in recital at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, on the “Discovery” recital series in La Jolla, at the 1993 International Viola Congress, and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since then, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean.
As a concerto soloist, Mr. Hummings has appeared with the Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival. He has also toured with Music from Marlboro, and performed at the Sarasota, Tanglewood, Aspen, Norfolk, and San Juan Islands Festivals, the El Paso International Chamber Music Festival, the Salt Bay Chamber Festival in Maine, as well as the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado. Mr. Hummings’ performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”, “St. Paul Sunday”, on WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, WFMT in Chicago, and the BBC, along with television appearances in Israel and South America.
As a chamber musician, Hummings has appeared in concert with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chester, Miro, St. Lawrence, Anderson, Arianna, Harrington and Corigliano quartets. He has also been a member of the Concertante Chamber Players, and is a member of Innuendo, a group comprised of members of the Boston and Pittsburgh symphonies, and performs with the Ritz Chamber Players.
Mr. Hummings was previously the conductor of the Old Dominion University Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta University Center Orchestra. Currently, he is on the faculty of James Madison University, and Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. As an orchestral musician, he has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, James DePriest, Christoph Eschenbach, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Morgan, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sixten Ehrling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Bernstein.
A native of New York City, Amadi Hummings was born in 1969. After early studies with his mother, he began his formal training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and conductor Pascal Verrot, receiving his Bachelor’s degree. Mr. Hummings was also awarded the Performer's Certificate from Indiana University, where he served as an Associate Instructor, and received his Master's Degree in 1994 as a student of Atar Arad.
Email: humminax@jmu.edu
Website: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ahummings/
JEFFREY SHOWELL, Professor
Jeffrey Showell’s viola mentors include Gerald Doty, Pamela Goldsmith, Francis Tursi and Raphael Hillyer. He has been a soloist with several orchestras, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, was the violist in the Rymour Quartet, and was Principal Violist of the Tucson Symphony. He has published several transcriptions for viola, is the author of A Technical Pedagogy for Viola, and has written articles for the American String Teacher, Journal of the American Viola Society, and The Journal of the National Academic Advising Association. He can also be heard on Albany Records playing Dan Asia’s String Quartet No. 1.
Showell attended Stanford University as a German major before transferring to the Eastman School of Music, where he earned bachelors and masters degrees. He holds an M.M.A. and a D.M.A. from Yale University. He taught 2 years at the College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University in Minnesota and 19 years at the University of Arizona, where he also served as Graduate Director and then as Assistant Director of the School of Music and Dance. After 5 years as chair of the music department of the University of Central Arkansas, Showell came to Madison in 2004 as Director of the School of Music.
Email: showelja@jmu.edu
