Composer, conductor and creative thinker — John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of music. His works stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. His operas and oratorios such as Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic and El Niño have transformed the genre of contemporary music theater. Spanning more than three decades, works such as Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, The Dharma at Big Sur and his Violin Concerto are among the most performed of all contemporary classical music.
As a conductor, Adams has led the world’s major orchestras, programming his own works with a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Beethoven, Mozart and Debussy to Sibelius, Ives, Carter, Glass and Ellington. Among his honorary doctorates are those from Yale, Harvard, Northwestern and Cambridge universities and from the Juilliard School. A provocative writer, he is author of the highly acclaimed autobiography Hallelujah Junction and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Since 2009, Adams has been creative chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Born and raised in New England, Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing at age 10 and his first orchestral pieces were performed while he was still a teenager.
In 2017, Adams celebrated his 70th birthday with festivals of his music in Europe and the United States, including special retrospectives at London’s Barbican, Cité de la Musique in Paris and in Amsterdam, New York and Geneva, among other cities. In 2019, he was the recipient of both Spain’s BBVA‘Frontiers of Knowledge Award and Holland’s Erasmus Prize “for notable contributions to European culture, society and social science.” In 2021, he was appointed honorary academician by the prestigious General Assembly of the Academicians of Santa Cecilia, also receiving the Glashütte Original Music Festival Award from the Dresden Music Festival in recognition of his lifetime achievement. He received the 2021 Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University in recognition for his “exceptional commitment to American composers.”
Conducting engagements in 2023-24 include return visits to the Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as performances with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, Adams will appear with the Teatre del Liceu for the European premiere of Adams’ new opera Antony and Cleopatra, following its hugely successful world premiere last season with the San Francisco Opera.
Recent conducting engagements include St. Louis Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, performances of Girls of the Golden West with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with his opera The Death of Klinghoffer, Iceland Symphony and the Czech Philharmonic at the Prague Spring Festival, where he reunited with his frequent collaborator Víkingur Ólafsson to perform his concerto Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
For Adams’ 75th anniversary in 2022, Nonesuch Records released the 40-disc “John Adams Collected Works,” a box set of recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label. Also available as a box set is the Berliner Philharmoniker’s “John Adams Edition,” a CD and DVD collection with seven of his works, conducted by Rattle, Dudamel, Petrenko, Gilbert and Adams.
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSO by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
