Adam Ballard's RARB bio

I have to say, it's been a long road that's led me here to RARB. For five years up at Dartmouth College, I sang proudly as a member of the Aires, for whom I also arranged an awful lot of songs, served as director from 1999-2000, and produced/assistant-produced three albums -- you can check out RARB reviews for two of them here and here. In fact, my experience with the Aires proved so comprehensive that I decided to major in music, with a focus on theory and composition. I also held my own in the dorky but passionate realms of student-produced musical theater, and managed to crank out quite a few original compositions that, if not ultra-accomplished, provided a welcome break from the relatively small palette of "bairs" and "bings" from which I crafted many an Aires' tune.

Since leaving Dartmouth, my life's been all about the job (I work at the Stanford Law Library), and it's been increasingly difficult to find musical outlets that fit into my schedule. So, I'm particularly grateful for and excited about this opportunity to get back into the aca-mix. I enjoy the work I do in libraries; it's taught me a great deal about order and process. Most importantly, though, I've learned unequivocally that I cull a deeper satisfaction from dealing with the systems of tonality and voice leading and syllable choosing and so on, than I do from those of Dewey's Decimals. Deep down I've always been a huge a cappella nerd, so I'll consider this my official outing.

Now, some fun facts about Adam (impress your friends at parties!):

On the day I was born, my father conducted the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra in their performance of the theme from "Star Wars".
I have won first prize in contests for creative writing (fiction), math (geometry and trigonometry), and sexy lingerie (making and modeling).
In addition to my exploits in a cappella and libraries, I run marathons and make delicious cupcakes.
I have been married twice.*

* Marriages may not have been legally binding and were definitely not consecrated by drinking a bottle of Hot Damn.

Reviews by Adam Ballard

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	Cosmos - Pa un par (On And About) [09 Dec 2005]
	The Buffalo Chips (University at Buffalo, SUNY) - The Old Block (10th Anniversary Live) [07 Nov 2005]
	Clockwork - Tesseract [01 Oct 2005]
	Clef Hangers (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) - Facing Clarence [29 Sep 2005]
	The Madison Project (James Madison University) - The Khaki Album [17 Aug 2005]
	Penn Masala (University of Pennsylvania) - The Brown Album [30 Jul 2005]
	Eclipse - For Show [22 Jul 2005]
	Great Northern Union Chorus - Bound For Glory [07 Jul 2005]
	Pieces of 8 - Across the Blue Meridian [19 Jun 2005]

9 total reviews