JOHN ADAMS (COMPOSER)

(Redirected from John Coolidge Adams)

:''For the Alaska-based postminimalist composer, see John Luther Adams.''
'John Coolidge Adams' (born February 15 1947) is an American composer, with strong roots in minimalism.

Contents

Life and career

Works

Stage

Orchestra

Voice and orchestra

Chamber Music

Other ensemble works

Chorus

Tape and electronic compostions

Piano

Film score

Arrangements and Orchestrations

Further reading

External links

Interviews

Streaming audio and downloads

Life and career

John Adams first recorded work was included on Brian Eno's Obscure Records LP "Ensemble Pieces", 1975.
He won a Grammy Award in 1989 in the Best Contemporary Composition category for Nixon in China and in 1998 in the same category for El Dorado.
Adams' work ''On the Transmigration of Souls'', a choral work commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music. However, after winning the award Adams expressed "ambivalence bordering on contempt" since he felt that the prize had "lost much of the prestige it still carries in other fields" because "most of the country's greatest musical minds" have been ignored in favor of academy composers and musicians. [1]
For information prior to 2003, please see the Pulitzer Prize committee's biography, linked to below.
Adams's newest opera, ''Doctor Atomic'', which premiered October 1, 2005, is also a collaboration with Sellars. The action of the opera is centered on the very first test of the atomic bomb, and is mainly about Robert Oppenheimer. Adams later adapted some of the music from the opera to form a standalone symphony.
John Adams became the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Artist in Association in June 2003. In the words of Adams himself, "the position is sufficiently unstructured and flexible to allow any number of wild things to happen."
On 23 November 2004, the British Academy presented a Fellowship of the Academy to John Adams at the Barbican, London, following a concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by the composer and including his work ''Harmonium''.
In 2005, the premiere recording of ''On the Transmigration of Souls'' (with Lorin Maazel conducting the New York Philharmonic) won three Grammy awards: Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Other recent prizes include the Harvard Arts medal for 2007.

Works

Stage

★ (1985-87) ''Nixon in China''

★ (1991) ''The Death of Klinghoffer''

★ (1995) ''I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky''



★ (2000) ''El Niño''

★ (2005) ''Doctor Atomic''

★ (2006) ''A Flowering Tree''

Orchestra

★ (1979) ''Common Tones in Simple Time''

★ (1980) ''Harmonium''

★ (1983) ''Shaker Loops (version for string orchestra)''

★ (1984) ''Harmonielehre''

★ (1985) ''The Chairman Dances''

★ (1985) ''Tromba Lontana''

★ (1986) ''Short Ride in a Fast Machine''

★ (1988) ''Fearful Symmetries''

★ (1989) ''Eros Piano''

★ (1993) ''Violin Concerto'', winner of the 1995 Grawemeyer Award for Music composition



★ (1991) ''El Dorado''

★ (1995) ''Lollapalooza''

★ (1996) ''Slonimsky's Earbox''

★ (1997) ''Century Rolls''

★ (1998) ''Naive and Sentimental Music''

★ (2001) ''Guide to Strange Places''

★ (2002) ''On the Transmigration of Souls''

★ (2003) ''My Father Knew Charles Ives''

★ (2003) ''The Dharma at Big Sur''

★ (2005) ''Doctor Atomic Symphony''

Voice and orchestra

★ (1987) ''The Nixon Tapes''

★ (1988) ''The Wound-Dresser''

Chamber Music

★ (1970) ''Piano Quintet''

★ (1992) ''Chamber Symphony''

★ (1978) ''Shaker Loops''

★ (1994) ''John's Book of Alleged Dances''

★ (1995) ''Road Movies''

★ (1996) ''Gnarly Buttons''

Other ensemble works

★ (1973) ''American Standard''

★ (1973) ''Christian Zeal and Activity''

★ (1975) ''Grounding''

★ (1982) ''Grand Pianola Music''

★ (1996) ''Scratchband''

★ (2001) ''Nancy's Fancy''

Chorus

★ (1973) ''Ktaadn''

★ (1980) ''Harmonium''

★ (1991) '' Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer''

★ (2002) ''On the Transmigration of Souls''

Tape and electronic compostions

★ (1971) ''Heavy Metal''

★ (1976) ''Studebaker Love Music''

★ (1976) ''Onyx''

★ (1983) ''Light Over Water''

★ (1992) ''Hoodoo Zephyr''

Piano

★ (1977) ''Phrygian Gates''

★ (1977) ''China Gates''

★ (1996) ''Hallelujah Junction''

★ (2001) ''American Berserk''

Film score

★ (1982) ''Matter of Heart''

★ (1999?) ''An American Tapestry''

Arrangements and Orchestrations

★ (1990) ''The Black Gondola'' (orchestration of Franz Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondola)

★ (1991) ''Berceuse Élégiaque'' (arrangement of Ferruccio Busoni’s original)

★ (1993) ''Le Livre de Baudelaire'' (orchestration of four songs from Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire by Claude Debussy)

★ (1995) ''La Mufa'' (orchestration of an Astor Piazzolla tango)

★ (1996) ''Todo Buenos Aires'' (orchestration of an Astor Piazzolla tango)

★ (1989-1993) ''Six Songs by Charles Ives'' (arranged of songs by Charles Ives)

Further reading

★ May, Thomas. ''The John Adams Reader'' (ISBN 1-57467-132-4)

External links

★ John Adams official site (earbox.com)

★ Pulitzer Prize biography (2003)

★ Doctor Atomic website for the opera

Interviews

★ John Adams in conversation with David Robertson

★ NewMusicBox: John Adams in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, 2000

Streaming audio and downloads

★ Audio: John Adams on KPFA's Ode To Gravity Series, 1973. Includes recordings of early works Heavy Metal, Hockey Scene, Period 1, and American Standard

★ Epitonic.com - John Adams featuring tracks from ''Shaker Loops''

★ Art of the States: John Adams