Adams John Adams

John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is an American composer of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism.

His works include Harmonielehre (1985), Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986), On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003), and Shaker Loops (1978), a minimalist four-movement work for strings.

His operas include Nixon in China (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, and Doctor Atomic (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb.

The Death of Klinghoffer is an opera for which he wrote the music, based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of wheelchair-bound 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The opera has drawn controversy, including allegations by some (including Klinghoffer's two daughters) that the opera is antisemitic and glorifies terrorism. The work's creators and others have disputed these criticisms.

List of works

Operas

• (1987) Nixon in China
• (1991) The Death of Klinghoffer
• (1995) I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (song play)
• (2000) El Niño (opera-oratorio)
• (2005) Doctor Atomic
• (2006) A Flowering Tree
• (2013) The Gospel According to the Other Mary (opera-oratorio)
• (2017) Girls of the Golden West (premiered by San Francisco Opera, November 2017).

Orchestral

• (1979) Common Tones in Simple Time
• (1983) Shaker Loops (for string orchestra)
• (1985) Harmonielehre
• (1985) The Chairman Dances
• (1986) Tromba Lontana
• (1986) Short Ride in a Fast Machine
• (1988) Fearful Symmetries
• (1989) Eros Piano (for piano and orchestra)
• (1991) El Dorado
• (1993) Violin Concerto (1995 Grawemeyer Award for Music composition)
• (1995) Lollapalooza
• (1996) Slonimsky's Earbox
• (1997) Century Rolls (for piano and orchestra)
• (1998) Naive and Sentimental Music
• (2001) Guide to Strange Places
• (2003) My Father Knew Charles Ives
• (2003) The Dharma at Big Sur (for solo electric violin and orchestra)
• (2007) Doctor Atomic Symphony
• (2009) City Noir
• (2012) Absolute Jest (for string quartet and orchestra)
• (2013) Saxophone Concerto
• (2014) Scheherazade.2 (dramatic symphony for violin and orchestra)

Voice and orchestra

• (1987) The Nixon Tapes (three suites from Nixon in China)
• (1989) The Wound-Dresser

Chamber music

• (1970) Piano Quintet
• (1978) Shaker Loops (for string septet)
• (1992) Chamber Symphony
• (1994) John's Book of Alleged Dances (for string quartet)
• (1995) Road Movies (for violin and piano)
• (1996) Gnarly Buttons (for clarinet and chamber ensemble)
• (2007) Son of Chamber Symphony
• (2007) Fellow Traveler (for string quartet)
• (2008) First Quartet
• (2014) Second Quartet

Other ensemble works

• (1973) American Standard, including Christian Zeal and Activity
• (1975) Grounding
• (1982) Grand Pianola Music
• (1996) Scratchband
• (2001) Nancy's Fancy

Choral works

• (1973) Ktaadn
• (1980) Harmonium
• (1991) Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer
• (2002) On the Transmigration of Souls

Tape and electronic compositions

• (1970) Heavy Metal
• (1976) Studebaker Love Music
• (1976) Onyx
• (1983) Light Over Water
• (1993) Hoodoo Zephyr

Piano

• (1977) Phrygian Gates
• (1977) China Gates
• (1996) Hallelujah Junction
• (2001) American Berserk

Film scores

• (1982) Matter of Heart
• (1999) American Tapestry
• (2010) I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) – all existing pieces, no original compositions

Orchestrations

• (1989) The Black Gondola (Liszt's La lugubre gondola II (1882))
• (1989) Berceuse Élégiaque (Busoni's Berceuse Élégiaque (1907))
• (1989) Wiegenlied (Liszt's Wiegenlied (1881))
• (1994) Le Livre de Baudelaire (Debussy's Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire)
• (1995) La Mufa (Piazzolla's tango)
• (1996) Todo Buenos Aires (Piazzolla's tango)

Arrangements

• (1989–93) Six Songs by Charles Ives (Ives' songs)

Awards and recognition

• Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Nixon in China (1989)
• Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Best Chamber Composition for Chamber Symphony (1994)
• University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for Violin Concerto (1995)
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1997)
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1997)
• Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for El Dorado (1998)
• Pulitzer Prize for Music for On the Transmigration of Souls (2003)
• Grammy Award for Best Classical Album for On the Transmigration of Souls (2005)
• Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for On the Transmigration of Souls (2005)
• Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for On the Transmigration of Souls (2005)
• Harvard Arts Medal (2007)
• Creative Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (2009–present)
• Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Northwestern University (2008)
• Honorary Doctorate of Music from Duquesne University (2009)
• Honorary Doctorate of Music from Harvard University (2012)
• Honorary Doctorate of Music from Yale University (2013)
• Honorary Doctorate of Music from Royal Academy of Music (2015)
• California Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts
• Cyril Magnin Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts
• Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters)