Adam Knight Gilbert grew up in South Carolina and studied at Rotterdam’s Conservatorium and in Leuven, Belgium. Gilbert is the first graduate of the Early Music program at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, and has performed as a member of the Renaissance Band, the Waverly Consort and Piffaro, and New York’s Ensemble for Early Music.
Gilbert received the Fulbright and Belgian American Education Foundation Grants working on his dissertation “Elaboration in Heinrich Isaac’s Three-Voice Mass Sections and Untexted Compositions.” In 2003, Gilbert received his PhD from Case Western Reserve University, and was an assistant professor at Stanford University. Gilbert has so far recorded for Yarlung, Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv Label, Musica Americana, Naxos, Dorian and Lyri chord labels.
Adam and his wife Rotem Gilbert founded Ciaramella Ensemble, which has so far performed and toured in the United States, Europe and the Near East. Gilbert serves as Director of the Early Music Program at the Thornton School of music at the University of Southern California.
In recognition of their outstanding successes as performers and educators in early music performance practice, Adam and Rotem jointly received the Thomas Binkley Award in 2014.
Adam has written numerous compositions for Yarlung concerts and recordings and was commissioned by the Horton family to compose the opening track, Woods and Brooks for Jung-A Lee: A Private Organ Recital in Walt Disney Concert Hall.
“In his spare time,” Adam kindly serves as Special Advisor to the board of Yarlung Artists and has introduced us to a number of Yarlung musicians, including Frédéric Rosselet.