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.