Adam Spiers is a multi-genre cellist whose repertoire encompasses classical, jazz, tango, Latin, bluegrass, folk, and pop.
Originally classically trained, as a teenager he was appointed principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, performing solos under Sir Colin Davis at the Barbican and Mark Wigglesworth at the BBC Proms, before completing a postgraduate diploma at the Royal Academy of Music under David Strange, Colin Carr, and Philip Sheppard. As principal cellist with Sinfonia Cymru for several years, he performed with renowned soloists such as Bryn Terfel, Andrea Bocelli, Anthony Marwood, Guy Johnston, John Lill, and Li-Wei Qin.
In 2010 during a visit to the USA, he re-kindled a strong passion for the improvisatory side of string playing which is particularly prevalent in Boston, New York, Nashville, and California. He has since travelled to the USA many times for music, initially training at the California Jazz Conservatory and Stanford Jazz Workshop, and studying with / performing alongside leading multi-genre string players such as Christian Howes, Jason Anick, Billy Contreras, Zach Brock, Victor Lin, Alex Hargreaves, Mike Block, Mads Tolling, Jeremy Kittel, and Darol Anger.
Back at home in London, he has guested with the Parliamentary Jazz Award-winning John Turville Trio at King's Place, performed several times at the London Jazz Festival, is the cellist of the London Tango Orchestra, has collaborated extensively with jazz-folk singer/songwriter Monika Lidke, with jazz and world rhythm performer/educator Barak Schmool (including a harmonic theory website called Scale Matcher), and on various projects with many other small jazz and world music ensembles.
Adam juggles his musical career with a long-running parallel life as a software engineer, a (less successful) pre-occupation with marathons and triathlons, and occasionally also juggles balls, clubs, and fire.