About
Adam Syed has devoted himself to teaching and performing the violin for more than a decade. He is new to the Pacific Northwest and originally hails from Ohio. Himself a child of the Suzuki Violin Method, Mr. Syed began his first violin lessons at age 3 at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. As he grew older and into high school, he found himself realizing that the Sunday morning lessons and afternoon rehearsals at Cincinnati Youth Symphony were his favorite four hours of the week, and realized that this is what he wanted to do for a living more than anything else.
Mr. Syed began his undergraduate training at the Ohio State University, where he studied under the late Michael Davis, who was first prize winner of the Carl Flesch Violin Competition, as well as concertmaster of both the Scottish National Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony. After three years, Mr. Syed transferred overseas to his teacher's own Alma Mater, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied with the world renowned pedagogue Yfrah Neaman and completed his B. Mus. degree with Honors. His Masters studies brought him home to Ohio, where he received the tutelage of David Updegraff at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Since completing college, Mr. Syed has performed in orchestras, and taught, extensively. He recently completed a decade's worth of tenure with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra as a core member of the violin section. In addition to also performing regularly with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, he has also performed with the Ohio orchestras of Canton, Youngstown, Opera Columbus, Opera Circle Cleveland, Mansfield, Ohio Valley Symphony, and River City Symphony as well as Huntington WV. In 2004, Mr. Syed embarked on a 3-week tour of Taiwan as a member of the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.
Mr. Syed had family and friends in the Pacific Northwest, and decided his life needed some new adventure, and from the flat wheat fields of Ohio, the mountains and Puget Sound sounded very exotic, and, realizing that one can play and teach violin anywhere, decided to embark upon a new chapter of life's journey. In his short time so far in Seattle, Mr. Syed has performed with the orchestras of Tacoma, Yakima, Lake Washington, Federal Way, Pacific Northwest Lyric Opera, in addition to chamber ensembles for weddings and other events. In addition to being a new faculty member of Pacific Northwest School of Music, Mr. Syed offers private instruction in either the student's or teacher's home. Mr. Syed is thrilled to be in a position to artistically serve the musical communities and programs of this most beautiful and culturally diverse part of our country.