Adam Silverman ’03 is a professional drummer, a Christian-rock artist and rising star in Nashville’s country music scene. He recently landed a gig touring with American Idol runner-up Lauren Alaina. In the past year, he appeared on Good Morning America and The Ellen Degeneres Show, among others. Between performances, he operates a website development business and spends time with Nicki, his wife of six years, and their two cats.

As fun as it looks
It’s just crazy how much fun it is to be on TV. The camera lights turn red and everything’s live. I’m the drummer, so everything starts with me. It’s the most crazy shot of adrenaline.

My McDaniel mentors
I definitely attribute a great deal of what I learned to the core group of professors in the music department. They took me under their wing and showed me I could make music my career. I played with Bo Eckard’s jazz combos and for Eric Byrd in the Gospel Choir. I love those guys.

Education counts
When I got to college I had taken a lot of drum lessons in my life but I didn’t know anything about actual music. If somebody had said, “We’re in the key of D, can you tell me what the five is?” there’s no way I would have been able to say, “Well, it’s A.” When you’re coming up in the industry it doesn’t matter so much, but when you’re at the level I’m at now it makes a huge difference.

Making it big
Musicians can do very poorly or you can also do very, very well. Lauren’s a new artist but we’re doing very well.

Nice guys finish first
Personality is extremely important and it’s underestimated. People think, I’ll just be the best musician and I’ll get hired. In Nashville there’s a million best musicians. Everyone’s amazing at what they do; that’s usually not what gets you hired. It’s more like, that guy’s an amazing player and he’s a really great person. That’s what opens the door.

This article was written by the McDaniel College Communications Department and can be found, along with other McDaniel College news and information, at http://www.mcdaniel.edu/information/headlines/news-at-mcdaniel/archive