Adam Woolf - trombone player, teacher...
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Biography - updated February 2011

ADAM WOOLF studied modern trombone and sackbut at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1993-1997. Soon after this he became in demand with many of the UK’s leading period instrument orchestras and chamber music ensembles. Already a founder member of the QuintEssential Sackbut and Cornett Ensemble, in 1997 Adam became a regular member of His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts. In 1999 Adam was appointed principal trombone of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique with which he has recorded every Bach cantata featuring sackbuts, the complete orchestral works of Brahms, several operas and other orchestral works on period instruments. Other work of note has included performances of the Leopold Mozart trombone concerto with The King’s Consort, a variety of programmes with The Gonzaga Band, and working with contemporary jazz musicians, Aka Moon, blending 17th century improvisation techniques with modern jazz styles.

In 2001, to explore the later, more soloistic repertoire for the sackbut, Adam co-founded the international ensemble the Caecilia-Concert, with which he has recorded and performed the some of the most virtuosic music for sackbut including solo works with organ.

Since 2005, Adam has been based in Continental Europe and now freelances regularly with leading ensembles and orchestras in France, Italy, Holland, Germany and Belgium, including Concerto Palatino, Oltremontano, Capriccio Stravagante, and La Fenice.

As well as a performer, Adam is a keen researcher of repertoire for the instrument and an active teacher. Adam is a co-director of the Newark Early Music Weekends and has taught on courses and given master-classes in Germany, Israel, Sweden, the USA and the UK. Adam has taught as a visiting professor at every major London music conservatoire and is currently a visiting professor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 2007 was awarded an honorary ARAM for distinguished contributions to the music business.

In 2008, Adam launched his Sackbut Solutions early trombone workshops. These popular events take place in a variety of places, include specialist individual tuition, group coaching and large ensemble playing and have led to the publication in 2010 of Adam's tutor-book for sackbut, also entitled Sackbut Solutions, which is the first of its kind to be published.

Adam’s solo CD, entitled Songs Without Words, which was recorded in 2009 on the sfz music label, is the first full-length CD recording to focus solely on the sackbut as a solo instrument in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music.

'Woolf again impresses the listener with impeccable intonation coupled with virtuosic technique, always with suave phrasing'

'Great attention should be given to trombonist Adam Woolf whose fine playing is ubiquitous on this recording. He offers dazzling technique...'