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JOHN LITTLEJOHN

John “Adidam” Littlejohn is a violinist, pastor, educator, and acoustic hip-hop artist who has been featured on NPR, CBC, ViolinChannel.com, RapRemnant.com, DMC TV (Egypt), and in the Baltimore Sun, Georgia Strait, and Strad Magazine.

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John is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory where he completed a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma in violin performance with Herbert Greenberg, after completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Michigan. His former teachers include Anthony Elliott, Stephen Shipps, Andrew Jennings, Ann Schoelles, and Yizhak Schotten (viola). Since graduating he has toured throughout Europe, Egypt, China, and North America as a soloist and one-third of Infinitus, the beatboxing string trio. As a member of Infinitus he has held multiple performance residencies with the Lincoln Center in NYC. In addition, he has performed with Michael Bublé, Weird Al Yankovic, the Clark Sisters, Richard Smallwood, Regina Carter, Elmo, Andrea Bocelli, the TransSiberian Orchestra, Rod Stewart, Blake Shelton, and Kehinde Wiley. He has served as the concertmaster of the Newark (Delaware) Symphony, and Darin Atwater’s Soulful Symphony; and has been a member of numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Baltimore Opera Orchestra.

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John is deeply committed to changing lives through music education. He is the founder and director of the Thrive City String Boot Camp, a tuition-free intensive retreat for intermediate to advanced string players. Additionally, he has performed over 1500 outreach performances in schools with Infinitus. He is currently on the faculty of the Vancouver Academy of Music and the Delta Community Music School. While in graduate school he received specialized training in violin pedagogy and curriculum development from Rebecca Henry, co-chair of the Peabody Preparatory String Department. His students have won competitions and have gone on to study music in university. He is a frequent clinician and adjudicator at music festivals, camps, workshops, and seminars.

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CB X LITTLEJOHN

In this episode, we talk to violinist and pastor John Adidam Littlejohn about the boxes we put ourselves in when making music or thinking about our careers. John shares his journey learning the violin without a private teacher, describing the freedom of not being told what was difficult or easy, as well as the freedom of not being constrained by a single genre. John brings these ideas into his own playing and teaching, showing us that our musical careers can also be free.

In this episode, we continue our conversation with John Littlejohn about his unique career path as both a musician and a pastor. He tells us that in both of these professions, the end goal is to teach people about life and help others succeed. We also discuss the importance of finding motivations beyond wanting validation, as well as holding the people in your life accountable and having them do the same for you.

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