Composition:
Adam Tevlin started writing music in his first year of grade school band at the age of twelve by writing a two bar snare drum solo entitled, “Victory March”. Later in high school, he has written for his high school’s drum line as well as gaining his first experiences with writing for the orchestra and concert band.
While at Lindenwood University working on his minor in composition, Tevlin has written two pieces for the Lindenwood’s Dance Department, the percussion for the Lindenwood Concert Choir’s adaptation of Betelehemu, as well as a flute solo called, “Twisted Ankles”. During those same years, he wrote percussion for Fort Zumwalt and Kirkwood High Schools; in of which, included an arrangement for marching band based on John Carpenter’s theme to Halloween.
Before moving to San Diego, Tevlin started to dabble in electronic music. “In Beethoven’s day, he was limited to the sounds of the orchestra of his day. Today, there appears to be no limitations with the technology of computers and software. It would be very interesting to see what Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach would have created with the tools we have today”. Tevlin wrote in different genres of electronic music such as drum and bass (jungle), down tempo, and hip-hop with Tom B. and Kojak on their independent label, Downlow Recordings. Tevlin then took a long break from writing. “There was a fourteen and a half year gap of writing nothing until one day, I woke up and literally began writing again.” Today, Tevlin continues to write and has shifted his interest in film scoring.
In 2012, Lindenwood University commissioned Tevlin to write a score for F.W. Marnau’s, Nosferatu (1922) as part of their educational Lindenwood Film Series. This piece was performed by Lindenwood’s Symphonic Orchestra and Concert Choir live with the film. A big undertaking compared to smaller pieces he has written, Tevlin used choir as well as soloists singing the intertitle cards in German. This unique idea made use of the intertitle cards by making them subtitles to the German libretto being sung. “I wanted not only the use of diegetic sounds with doors slamming, people laughing, and even a mosquito buzzing but also soloists singing the intertitle cards which makes the experience real and draws in the audience that much more”. In 2014, Lindenwood University commissioned Tevlin again to write an original score for orchestra and choir to perform alongside the timeless and considered one of the greatest films ever made, La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928). La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc is scheduled to premiere in September 2016. Also that same year, Liquid Blue; the most traveled band in the world, commissioned Tevlin to arrange an orchestral introduction for their remake of Jon Anderson’s, Song of Seven. In 2015; internationally known, Joy M. Mills commissioned Tevlin to write the music for her podcast program, Soul – Lutions.
Today being the founder and CEO of @MS Works, LLC, Tevlin continues to commercially deliver his compositions in the audio world creating some of the most unique music heard.