Born in
Muttersholtz,
Alsace, the son of Mathias Adam and Marie-Dorothée Meyer, Adam went to
Paris in 1775 to study piano and harpsichord with
Jean-Frédéric Edelmann. He spent over four decades, from 1797 through 1842, as Professor of Pianoforte at the
Conservatoire de Paris, retiring in 1842 (at age 84), and died in the city, aged 89. As professor, he was the teacher of a number of notable students, including
Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul,
Friedrich Kalkbrenner,
Henry Lemoine, In addition to being a skilled pianist, he composed a number of piano pieces that were in vogue at the time, especially some variations on
Le Bon roi Dagobert. He also wrote two standard instruction books for piano:
Méthode ou principe générale du doigté pour le forté-piano (1798) and
Méthode nouvelle pour le piano (1802). In 1804, he published the
Méthode de piano du Conservatoire, an influential work, which contributed to the advancement of piano technique in Paris. Adam was married three times. His second wife was the sister of the Count de Louvois; the couple had a daughter, Sophie, later married to Colonel Genot. After his separation, Adam remarried to Élisabeth-Charlotte-Jeanne (known as Élisa) Coste, daughter of a doctor. The couple had two boys,
Adolphe Charles Adam (1803) (future popular composer, author of the ballet
Giselle, the comic opera
The Postillon of Lonjumeau, and the Christmas carol
Midnight, Christians) and Alphonse Hippolyte Adam (1808). ==References==