Adam Tendler has created a unique life in the arts as a celebrated pianist, composer, and advocate. Upon early graduation with distinction from the esteemed Indiana University School of Music, Tendler immediately began co-authoring a second edition of The History of American Classical Music by John Warthen Struble and Philip Glass, an assignment that led to his conception of the America 88x50 tour, an unprecedented grassroots recital tour initiative in which for a year Tendler lived out of his car and independently teamed with arts organizations in all fifty states to perform free lecture-recitals of modern American music for underserved communities. Since then, he has contributed regularly to NPR and Pacifica affiliates across the country as a modern music liaison, and has continued to turn heads with his uncompromising programming, bold original compositions, and innovative collaborations, including recent tenure as Artistic Director of the Foundation for Modern Music, a nonprofit supporting the work of living composers.

Tendler is currently in the development of THE DISSONANT STATES, a first-of-its-kind, interactive meta-memoir experience that uses the fifty-state America 88x50 tour as a vessel to confront, explore, and come to terms with a unique sense of national, artistic, and sexual identity.