Joy Adams

CAP Creative Strings I & II Conductor

Joy Adams, cellist, is the CAP Creative Strings I & II conductor within the Community Arts Program (CAP) Conservatory for the Arts. Joy began playing the cello at age 15. Despite a string of classical adventures that included winning Musicfest Northwest, attending the Aspen Music Festival, soloing with the Spokane Symphony, earning a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, and touring the country with the Selden String Quartet, Joy ultimately returned to her country roots and joined an old-time band during her last year at Eastman.

Joy was drawn to the University of Miami Frost School of Music by the residency of Mark O’Connor and the Henry Mancini Institute, and is now a full-scholarship Mancini Fellow, pursuing her Doctorate, and studying with Ross Harbaugh. She works closely with Mark O’Connor as part of the award-winning bluegrass trio Avocado Estate, and is currently writing and recording the cello books for O’Connor’s string method. She teaches bluegrass songwriting at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and is on the faculty of fiddle camps in Boston, Charleton and Sandpoint, Idaho. Joy has made a dozen concerto appearances, and has shared the stage and/or recorded for artists such as Renee Fleming, Bobby McFerrin, Chic Correa, Terrance Blanchard, Pharrell Williams,  George Benson, Gloria Estefan, Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, and Mark O’Connor.