Teacher Profile: Adam Syed

About Adam Syed

Adam Syed, violin, has established himself in the Puget Sound region as a teacher and performer over the past decade. Mr. Syed moved to Seattle in 2014 after having spent his first 35 years in Ohio. He started learning the violin at age 3 in the Suzuki Violin program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and was a child of that conservatory's preparatory division through high school, which included piano lessons and theory-history classes as well as his foundational exposure to orchestral playing in the Cincinnati Junior Strings and later Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as All-State Orchestra.

While he did enjoy private lessons and Junior Strings, it was in Youth Symphony during the high school years that he truly caught "the bug," realizing that those Sunday afternoon rehearsals were what he looked forward to more than any of his academic classes at school during the weekdays. Concluding that he wanted to devote his life to music, he began his undergraduate training at the Ohio State University studying under Michael Davis, before transferring overseas to London to complete his degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the imminent pedagogue Yfrah Neaman. His graduate studies brought him back to Ohio where he studied with David Updegraff at the Cleveland Institute of Music to obtain his Master's degree.

Mr. Syed has devoted himself to teaching and performing for the past two decades. He has performed with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Cincinnati Chamber Opera, Symphony Tacoma, Auburn Symphony Orchestra, Federal Way Symphony Orchestra, Bellevue Symphony, and Yakima Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition to weddings and corporate events, he has also performed with artists such as Josh Groban and Cirque du Soleil. Mr. Syed has toured Taiwan with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.

As a teacher, Mr. Syed has taught extensively both privately and in public school settings, in Ohio, West Virginia, and the Puget Sound Region. His 2007-2008 Artist In Residence Position with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra involved leading the strings programs in four county elementary schools, and he has taught hundreds of private students since 2008. He has worked as a coach for Seattle and Bellevue Youth Symphonies.

Mr. Syed is flexible in terms of his approach as a teacher, but he gravitates toward the Suzuki method of learning the violin, as this is not only the most common method, but also the method with which he grew up. The Suzuki Method is also known as the "mother tongue" method as it stresses lots of listening and learning by ear from a young age. However, Mr. Syed is also intimately familiar with other method materials, such as Essential Elements.

Mr. Syed lives in Des Moines with a view of the Marina. In his spare time he hikes and feeds the feral Blitty, the black kitty.