Adam Darr

Who was Adam Darr?

Adam Darr was a German classical guitarist, singer, zitherer and composer.

Adam Darr was born in Schweinfurt, Germany, and began his musical activities some time between the ages of 12 and 18. Sometime after the age of 23, he left his hometown of Schweinfurt, performing abroad. Although secondary sources state that he performed for royal courts, no primary sources have been discovered to verify this claim. The first know performance of Darr is in April 1837, as a guitarist/vocalist in an ensemble known as the Bavaria Nature-Singers. It is known that he traveled with this ensemble in Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. It is believed that he spent three years in St. Petersburg, Russia from 1836 to 1839, after which he returned to Germany. It is believed that he performed in Paris and it has been verified that he did perform in Berlin. He first moved to Würzburg, which is just a few miles from his hometown of Schweinfurt, and it was in Würzburg that he met Fredrich Brand. Together they formed a guitar duo and for a year, or perhaps two, they traveled through Southern Germany performing in Munich, Weimar, and perhaps other towns. Sometime after the duo parted ways, Darr moved to Munich, where he taught and performed. It was that this time that he made the acquaintance of the Grand Duke of Bavaria's Court Zitherist Johann Petzmayer, who became his zither teacher. Sometime in the 1851, Darr became the governor and music teacher to the a wealthy English family. After five years of service to the Whitbread family, Darr ended his employment and in 1856 he moved to Augsburg. In the last 10 years of his life, Darr composed music for the guitar, zither, and voice. During this time he published many works for the zither including his famous Zither Method. In the last year of his life, Darr became depressed due to a marital engagement that was terminated and on 2 October 1866 he committed suicide by drowning himself in the river Lech at Augsburg.