Impromptu - Madeline Adkins

Impromptu - September 2005
photo by Michael Ciesielski

Madeline Adkins was recently named the BSO’s Associate Concertmaster. She is the youngest of eight children – six are professional string players, one is a vocalist and the “black sheep” is a scientist living in Hawaii. Not surprisingly, both her parents are musicologists and taught at the University of North Texas in Denton where Madeline was raised and went to college.Their first professional performance as a group was in 1993.

How does it feel to play with your siblings?
We are already so familiar with each other, which is the key to chamber music, so on one hand it is so easy as we all play the same way and had the same teacher. However, and my mother would kill me for saying this, we also know how to push each other’s buttons.

Did you ever consider making a career as a group?
Well, by the time we younger ones were old enough my older siblings were already landing professional jobs, so we decided to get together three or four times a year to perform rather than make a career as a group. One of my sisters, Elisabeth, is the Associate Concertmaster of the National Symphony, a brother is Principal Cello of the Dallas Symphony and another sister is in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony.

You were recently promoted from Assistant to Associate Concertmaster— congratulations!
Thanks. Yes, that was my second audition with Maestro Temirkanov in five years. I feel honored and proud to have won not just one but two jobs with him.

Since we are taking this photograph upstairs at An die Musik, what are some of your favorite CDs?
Honestly for fun I like ‘70s funk and disco. Also, jazz and Latin music such as the Gypsy Kings. I really like Queen.

Read more about Madeline