Adrian Gnam

A visitation for Adrian will be held Monday, April 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM at Snow's Memorial Chapel, 1419 Bass Road, Macon, Georgia 31210. A Celebration of his Life will occur Monday, April 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM, Snow's Memorial Chapel, Bass Road. Reverend Chip Miller will officiate. The burial will occur Monday, April 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM at Parkhill Cemetery, 4161 Macon Road, Columbus, Georgia 31907. Honorary pallbearers will be Jon Atwater, Michael Hodge, Jon-Clay Atwater, Caden Hodge, Slade Hodge, Joshua Livingston, Bill Patrick and Madden Metcalf.

The popular and charismatic Music Director and Conductor, Adrian Gnam, led the Macon Symphony Orchestra to a continuing high level of artistic success from 1983 to 2010. He is most proud of the MSO's dedication and achievements to sold out audiences, young people's concerts, commissioned works, world premieres and composers in residence, concerts in surrounding communities,, a variety of guest artists, concerto competitions, pops concerts and special fund raising programs which raised over a million dollars for the MSO's Endowment. A multi-talented musician, conductor, oboist, arranger, administrator, speaker, arts consultant, fund raiser and teacher, he enjoys an international reputation for his superlative musicianship and teaching excellence. A former principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski, Mr. Gnam has studied oboe under some of the major figures in the field: Harold Gomberg, John Mack and Marcel Tabuteau, and conducting with Pierre Monteux, Max Rudolf, and George Szell. He has three degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Maestro Gnam has guest conducted numerous orchestras including: Alabama, Jacksonville, Santa Fe, Youngstown, Florida, Indianapolis, Louisville, Grand Rapids and Puerto Rico Symphonies; the Cincinnati, Erie and Eugene Ballet Companies; the Missouri Regional Opera Company; Spoleto, Interlochen, Chautauqua, Colorado, Hartwick, Eastern and Texas Music Festivals; and major orchestras in Rumania, Venezuela, Italy, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Japan, Honduras and Russia.

Mr. Gnam is a former Director of the Music Program at the National Endowment for the Arts. During his eight-year tenure at the Arts Endowment, he was responsible for developing new categories of support, representing the field of music before the U.S. Congress and fundraising for joint private/public ventures. He was awarded a special Distinguished Service Award for "outstanding, innovative and precedent-setting contributions to furthering the goals and missions of the Endowment and enhancing the Arts on a national scale." Mr. Gnam is also the recipient of the National Federation of Music Clubs President's Award, Macon Arts Alliance Award and a Commendation by the Governor of the State of Georgia. He is a former President of the Conductors Guild and serves on its advisory council.

During his distinguished career, Maestro Gnam has shared the stage with such notable soloists as Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Gil Shaham, Robert McDuffie, Chee Yun, Cho Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers, Carter Brey, Roberta Peters, Maureen Forrester, Garrick Ohlsson, John Browning, Helen Huang, Christopher O'Riley, Roberto Diaz and Samuel Ramey among others. He is the former Music Director of the Midland, Eugene and Tuscaloosa Symphonies. Maestro Gnam was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia for fifteen seasons, the Florence Chamber Orchestra for four seasons and was Music Director of the Shreveport Summer Music Festival.

Maestro Gnam is deeply committed to the education of young musicians in the U.S. He was an Associate Professor at Ohio University, was on the artist faculty at Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music and has served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Houston. He has conducted and given oboe master classes at Temple University, the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, Peabody Conservatory, Georgetown University, the University of Oregon, the University of Delaware, UCLA, the University of Kansas, Oregon State University, Trinity University and the University of Alabama.

Recently, Maestro Gnam has conducted twice in Kurobe, Japan and has appeared as an oboe soloist, conductor and master class faculty member with the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Gainesville Symphony, Middletown Symphony, Southern Illinois Symphony, South Arkansas Symphony, Seattle Youth Symphony, Orchestra of Illinois and New York's Orchestra da Camera. He can be heard on Decca, Columbia, Century Advent, Piper Co and Opus One recordings as well as Bravo! The Macon Symphony Orchestra CD. He is currently Director of the International Conductors Workshop and Competition, and is a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Mercer University's Townsend School of Music.

Although music and conducting were a passion, the true love of his was his wife and their family.

He is survived by his wife, Diane Taff Gnam; children, Jennifer Atwater(Jon), Brittany Hodge(Michael), and Stephanie Livingston; grandchildren, Jon-Clay Atwater(Kendall Rowland), Caden Hodge, Madyson Atwater, Slade Hodge, Piper Livingston, Carsyn Atwater, Peyton Hodge, and Joshua Livingston.

We will accept flowers however, a donation to the Mercer University Townsend School of Music or the American Cancer Society would be greatly appreciated.

Snow's Memorial Chapel, Bass Road, is in charge of arrangements.