Adam Vidiksis

ADAM VIDIKSIS is a drummer and composer based in Philadelphia who explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. His music examines technological systems as artifacts of human culture, acutely revealed in the fluid and dynamic space where these elements meet and overlap—a place of friction, growth, and decay. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing,” “dramatic,” and “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable” and “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes). The Philadelphia Inquirer has noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment.”

Vidiksis’s music is performed regularly by prestigious ensembles throughout North America, Europe, and China. His work has been recognized with awards from the Japan-US Friendship Commission, Barlow Chamber Music America, Society of Composers, Inc., Columbus Black International Film Festival, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, American Composers Forum, Istanbul Film Awards, Phindie Critics’ Awards, Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, Pi Kappa Lambda, the Omaha Symphony, and Blow-Up Chicago International Arthouse Film Festival. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, Scarp, Fuzzy Panda, SEAMUS Records, New Focus, and Ravello Records. He served as the ACF Steven R. Gerber Composer-in-Residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia during its 2017–2018 season, was a 2017 Conwell Entrepreneurial Fellow, and received the Nichi Bei Collaborating Artist Grant from JUSFC in 2020. His artwork has been featured by curators in North America and Europe, including at the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica in Barcelona, Spain, and the Pontificio Collegio Gallio in Como, Italy. Vidiksis currently serves as the 2025 Established Artist Fellow in Music Composition for the State of Delaware’s Division of the Arts.

Vidiksis’s research in music technology focuses on real-time audio processing techniques, designing gestural controllers for live digital performance, machine improvisation, generative music, and neuro-aesthetics. He has been invited to present his research at numerous institutions, including the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Oberlin Conservatory, Brigham Young University, and the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology in Zürich. His gestural controller, the Tapbox DSP, was a semifinalist in the 2012 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Vidiksis holds degrees from Drew University, New York University, and Temple University, culminating in a doctoral degree in music composition. He is an Associate Professor of Music Studies in music technology at Temple University.

A devoted advocate for new music and improvisation, Vidiksis served for over a decade as the conductor of the Temple Composers Orchestra and as a founding member of the executive board of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to promoting freely improvised live performance of experimental sound and movement. He is Chairman and a founding member of SPLICE Music, where he serves on the Composition and Percussion Performance faculty at the SPLICE Institute at Western Michigan University. He performs in several active ensembles, including SPLICE Ensemble, Aeroidio, and the Miller-Vidiksis-Wells trio. His work with SPLICE Ensemble, formed from the institute’s performance faculty, has been featured at national conferences and major venues worldwide. He also serves as faculty advisor to Pitch, Please, an LGBTQIA+ advocacy a cappella group. Vidiksis curates the long-standing Philadelphia electroacoustic concert series Cybersounds and is the founder and director of the Boyer Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP), which has served as a laboratory for innovation in new music and technology since 2013.

He has performed throughout North America, Europe, and China as an improviser in both percussion and electronics. His deep interest in bringing new works to life has led him to conduct numerous premieres, collaborating with international groups such as Ensemble NJ_P and the Black Sea Symphony. Vidiksis previously held positions as director of the wind ensemble at Drew University in Madison, NJ, and as assistant conductor of the Delaware County Symphony in Aston, PA. He has collaborated with many artists and ensembles, including Gene Coleman, Toshimaru Nakamura, Dana Jessen, Rod Coover, Nick Montfort, Akikazu Nakamura, Sanzusu, Network for New Music, Popebama, Ensemble Mise-En, Mari Kimura, DM Hotep, Dan Blacksberg, Nick Millevoi, Elainie Lillios, Paula Matthusen, Sam Pluta, Matthias Müller (SABRe), Nicholas Isherwood, Donald Nally, and The Crossing.

For more information and music, please visit www.vidiksis.com.