From 1982 to 1985, he was composer-in-residence of the San Francisco Symphony, and some of his landmark works were written for and premiered by this ensemble: from Harmonium (1981) to Absolute Jest (2012), by way of Grand Pianola Music (1982) and My Father Knew Charles Ives (2003). After earning a BA and an MA in Music Composition from Harvard University, he taught for ten years at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He began composing at the age of ten and heard his first orchestral pieces performed while still a teenager. John Adams ((Worcester, Massachusetts, 1947) learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. In recent pieces such as Absolute Jest, his violin concerto Scheherazade.2, and his new Piano Concerto, Adams’ music continues to evolve, and to enrich our musical landscape. John Adams writes music that is genuinely of our time, and always has been, from the late 20th century into the 21st century. On the Transmigration of Souls reflects poignantly on 9/11, and in his oratorios Adams takes the Bach Passions as his model, and uses them to explore immigration and gender issues, making sure women’s voices and minority points of view are heard. This trajectory has continued with The Death of Klinghoffer, Doctor Atomic, and his new opera Girls of the Golden West, making us think afresh about American history, the nuclear age and terrorism. With his first opera, Nixon in China, Adams pioneered a new kind of “docu-opera,” writing about events in living memory, and fearlessly addressing contemporary and controversial issues. It is a style that’s hard to define, but somehow “American,” often inflected with the jazz influences and rock and pop music of his youth.
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There is something immediately recognizable about a John Adams composition, across all genres – solo, chamber, orchestral, opera and oratorio. The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera goes, in this eleventh edition, to John Adams, who has established himself as a unique voice in contemporary music, creating a personal style based on the highest standards of musical and technical excellence, while communicating powerfully to a wide audience.Įven in works as early as Shaker Loops in the late 1970s that distinctive voice was emerging more obviously in larger orchestral canvases in the 1980s – Harmonium, Grand Pianola Music and Harmonielehre – that now form part of the repertoire for orchestras worldwide.