"I felt sad for a long time that many of the students have never really been exposed to classical music for any length of time, and decided that I had to do something".

                                         -Professor Josiah Adams-

"As a child listening to Bach, I thought,"I wish my life could be like this piece of music."

On any given afternoon you might hear new sounds resonating from the student center.  It could be court ceremonial music of Japan, or perhaps tabla percussion music of northern India.  If you walk into the building you might wander across Mr. Adams elaborating about Bach's Goldberg's Variations or perhaps  Mozarts first movement of the String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, known as the "Dissonance Quartet".

It started out with occasional clips of Bach during physics class.  And then it grew into music in Morning Meeting.  Then Mr. Adams presented a series of seminars on music.  Most recently he played and taught Beethoven's Valdstein, which the students generally seemed to like.

If Mr. Adams has a point that he tries to convey to his audience:  It's that classical music is important.

"Its like if you're a connoisseur of great nutritious food, and you see people only eating McDonalds!" exclaimed Mr. Adams. "That's what I felt like.....The great and most significant pieces of music are the most important things that human beings have ever done."  

He tells the students, "I like to organize the mind so that it makes sense of things. I know its heresay because I'm a scientist, but Bach is more important than anything that natural science has ever done! There I've said it."

Mr. Adams knows that only a few students may feel the immediate impact.  He stated, "It is after all the generation of YouTube, and Facebook.  It is more likely that the average student will learn Soulja Boy's "Superman" or Cali Swag District's: "Teach Me How to Dougie" than learn about Bach. You know that the best thing that humanity has  ever created is music."

He tells his audience about the capacity of human beings and tries to extol the virtues of music.   "That's Bach." he says. "If there can be one human being that did what Bach did, then it gives you some hope.  It means we may create something of importance."

So stroll into Elan's student center on an afternoon when you hear the music playing.  You'll find Josiah Adams.  He will be willing to "teach you how to Dougie"  in the style of Bach.