Adrian Snell (born 1954 in Northwood, Middlesex, England) is an English pianist, keyboard player, singer and composer. Classically trained at the Leeds College of Music and with a music diploma to his name (LGSM), Adrian's musical career spans twenty-five years. During this time he has produced six major concept works and thirteen solo albums. He has performed extensively in the United Kingdom, Israel, the United States, Australia, and throughout Europe, and has had many TV and radio performanc...
Adrian Snell (born 1954 in Northwood, Middlesex, England) is an English pianist, keyboard player, singer and composer.
Classically trained at the Leeds College of Music and with a music diploma to his name (LGSM), Adrian's musical career spans twenty-five years. During this time he has produced six major concept works and thirteen solo albums. He has performed extensively in the United Kingdom, Israel, the United States, Australia, and throughout Europe, and has had many TV and radio performances world-wide.
He has received major commissions (BBC Radio 1 'The Virgin', Prospects 'Beautiful or What?!', Shoresh 'City of Peace') recorded with major orchestras (Royal Philharmonic 'The Passion' and the Dutch Metropole Orchestra), and TV and Radio highlights include ITV and NCRV Holland's productions of 'The Passion', HTV's special musical documentary of 'Song of an Exile' recorded at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and BBC Radio 1's premiere broadcasts of 'The Passion' and 'The Virgin'.
His albums have sold half a million copies, and his audience is drawn from the wide spectrum of those who consider themselves lovers of classical and contemporary music. Music has been his 'first love' since the age of six. He is an accomplished pianist and guitarist, and he has carried his songs on album and in concert to tens of thousands over the years.
June 1995 saw the premier release of Adrian's major, two album concept work 'City of Peace'. The work explores the Jewish roots of the Christian faith, drawing on poems written by Jewish authors spanning from six thousand years ago to the present day. City of Peace also comes as a climax to eleven years of searching and discovery that began with a journey into the lives of Jewish men, women, and children caught up in the Nazi Holocaust.
"It is eleven years since I walked through the gates of Bergen Belsen. I shall never forget that day; it changed me in ways I couldn't have imagined. Music is, in the end, the language of my heart, so not surprisingly much of my writing since then expresses the search for answers and meaning in all that the Holocaust and Jewish history opens up in us." - Adrian Snell
Adrian's most recent album release is a new, large scale work - 'The Cry, A Requiem for the Lost Child'. This features the choir of Winchester Cathedral and the Wellspring String Ensemble alongside his own voice and that of Natasja Gorlee. Also featured is American solo violinist Rebecca Engstrom.
Working within the Requiem structure, Adrian, with author Murray Watts, has woven the authentic words of children who have suffered war, conflict and ethnic cleansing. The work was originally inspired by the children's memorial at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.
In the last two years Adrian has also designed and developed an interactive workshop entitled 'Music in our Lives', a concept equally relevant to musicians and non-musicians. Here an unusual and innovative use of sound and music-making is employed to encourage 'out of the box' thinking and a look at various aspects of life, communication, and relationships in unexpected and challenging ways.
Adrian is also a fully trained Music Therapist holding the post graduate diploma in Music Therapy (Dip. Mus. Th.) awarded by the University of Bristol through the faculty of medicine.
Adrian has also been a guest presenter on programmes for BBC TV (U.K), EO TV (Holland) and Heartrock TV (Israel). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
