John Coolidge Adams 0
John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include 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.
Adams’ music, including his two “grand operas” written with poet Alice Goodman, have been called “post-minimalist” for the way they expand on the style pioneered by composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Adams’ Doctor Atomic recently found a new production at the Metropolitan Opera, with his Nixon in China scheduled to follow in 2010.
Libretto by Alice Goodman.
October 22, 1987, Houston Grand Opera, Houston, Texas
Libretto by Alice Goodman.
March 19, 1991, Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, Belgium
Libretto by June Jordan.
May 11, 1995, Zellerbach Playhouse, Berkeley, California
Libretto by Peter Sellars, drawn from historical sources.
October 1, 2005, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco, California
Libretto by John Adams and Peter Sellars after the ancient Indian folktale and poetry in translations by AK Ramanujan.
November 14, 2006, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria, Eric Owens/Russell Thomas/Jessica Rivera; Orquesta Joven Camerata de Venezuela/Schola Cantorum Caracas, cond. Adams; also Berlin, San Francisco, London