John Adams

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Born: 1947, Worcester, Massachusetts
 
“The best American classical music is very open, very embracing.”
 
One of Minimalism’s shaping spirits, John Adams is a composer of distinctive stylistic élan. He made an early decision to break with the modernist aesthetic prevailing in post-war Europe and U.S. academia, launching a vigorous exploration of Minimalism infused with American vernacular influences. Adams’ later music expands these elements with long-limbed polyphony, chromaticism, and his “earbox” technique of modal transposition. He won the Grawemeyer Award in 1995 for his Violin Concerto and was named Composer of the Year in 1997 by Musical America. Adams is also an active and esteemed conductor. He has won three Grammy awards for Best Contemporary Composition.
 
Further listening:

Phrygian Gates (1977)
Gloria Cheng, piano (Telarc)


 
Nixon in China (opera, 1987)
Page, Maddalena, Sylvan, Orchestra of
St. Luke’s, Edo De Waart (Nonesuch)


 
Chamber Symphony (1991)
London Sinfonietta, Adams (Nonesuch)