Louis Adam


Louis Adam or Jean-Louis Adam was a French composer, music teacher, and piano virtuoso.

Life and career

Born in Muttersholtz, Alsace, the son of Mathias Adam and Marie-Dorothée Meyer, Adam went to Paris in 1775 to study piano and harpsichord with Jean-Frédéric Edelmann. He spent over four decades, from 1797 through 1842, as Professor of Pianoforte at the Conservatoire de Paris, retiring in 1842, and died in the city, aged 89. As professor, he was the teacher of a number of notable students, including Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Ferdinand Hérold, and Henry Lemoine.
In addition to being a skilled pianist, he composed a number of piano pieces that were in vogue at the time, especially some variations on Le Bon roi Dagobert. He also wrote two standard instruction books for piano: Méthode ou principe générale du doigté pour le forté-piano and Méthode nouvelle pour le piano. In 1804, he published the Méthode de piano du Conservatoire, an influential work, which contributed to the advancement of piano technique in Paris.
Adam was married three times. His second wife was the sister of the Count de Louvois; the couple had a daughter, Sophie, later married to Colonel Genot. After his separation, Adam remarried to Elisabeth-Charlotte-Jeanne Coste, daughter of a doctor. The couple had two boys, Adolphe-Charles and Alphonse Hippolyte.