Adrian Gordon is an active performer, composer and music educator who currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he teaches as the orchestra director at Providence Day School. He received his Bachelor of Arts in music from the University of Miami and his master’s in music education at Florida International University. Additionally, he is a composer with Alfred Music Publishing and the founder of Leap Year Music Publishing which publishes music for all grade levels.

Farewell to the Violin was published in 2009 and is a melodious piece written for solo violin. It is meant to create a vivid image of sadness and passion. Gordon composed this piece for his last jury in college before putting down the violin for several years. In his summary, Gordon writes, “A tired soul defiantly lays down their zeal for the traditional violin precepts and moves forward on an unknown and uncharted course.” This quote from his summary directly relates to his own musical journey however, as people, we can all strongly relate to the message behind this quote: although it’s challenging, sometimes we have to leave the familiar things behind and move forward into the unknown.