Conductor goes missing in mountains

From the Idaho State University School of Performing Arts:

It is with great sadness that I report to you another loss among the family of Idaho State University’s Music Department. Instructor of bassoon and musicology, Dr. George Adams, has passed after being reported as missing over the past weekend in the Glacier National Park area. Sentiments are with his daughter Carla, his loved ones, and with his musical colleagues here in Idaho.

George was a fantastic bassoonist, and at the age of 77 was still playing professionally as a symphonic and chamber musician. He was a former conductor of the Idaho Falls Symphony, and twice an interim conductor for our own Idaho State Civic Symphony, with which he has performed as Principal up to the present. In the classroom, he remained student-focused, and was known for a big heart and always making the time to offer help.

We will miss George greatly. The School of Performing Arts will ultimately find a way to properly memorialize his contributions to our institution and community. Covid, however, is making things difficult for performance and event planning here in the near term; We will look forward to a proper public expression at some point in the future, no matter how many months it takes.

Thank you to the Flathead and Glacier search and rescue communities for their efforts.

Thom Hasenpflug – Chair of Music and Director of Performing Arts, Idaho State University