John Luther Adams

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This article is about the Alaskan composer. For the California-based composer, see John Adams
(composer). For other persons named John Adams, see John Adams (disambiguation).
John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer whose music is inspired
by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska where he has lived since 1978 (Garland 2007). His
orchestral work Become Ocean was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music (Huizenga 2014;
Pulitzer.org 2014).

Contents

1 Biography

2 List of works

3 Awards and recognition

4 Discography

5 Writings

6 References

7 External links

Biography
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Adams began playing music as a teenager as a drummer in rock
bands. He attended Cal Arts as an undergraduate in the early 1970s, where he studied with James
Tenney and Leonard Stein, and graduated in 1973 (Kosman 2001). After graduating from Cal
Arts, Adams began work in environmental protection. This work first brought him to Alaska in
1975. His deep love for the location led to his permanent migration there in 1978. It continues to
be a prominent influence in his music (Garland 2007). From 1982 to 1989, he performed as
timpanist and principal percussionist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic
Chamber Orchestra (Kosman 2001).
Adams received a 1993 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[1]
From 1998 to 2002, Adams served as Associate Professor of Composition at Oberlin
Conservatory of Music.

In 2006, Adams was named one of the first United States Artists Fellows. Previously, he received
awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation,
the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Garland 2007).
Adams's musical work spans many genres and media. He has composed for television, film,
children's theater, voice, acoustic instruments, orchestra, and electronics.
Adams describes himself, saying: "My music has always been profoundly influenced by the
natural world and a strong sense of place. Through sustained listening to the subtle resonances of
the northern soundscape, I hope to explore the territory of sonic geographythat region between
place and culture...between environment and imagination" (Anon. n.d.).
Adamss love of nature, concern for the environment and interest in the resonance of specific
places led him to pursue the concept of sonic geography. Early examples of this idea include two
works written during Adamss sojourn in rural Georgia: Songbirdsongs (197480), a collection
of indeterminate miniature pieces for piccolos and percussion based on free translations of bird
songs, and Night Peace (1977), a vocal work capturing the nocturnal soundscape of the
Okefenokee Swamp through slow-changing and sparse sonic textures (Feisst 2013).
In 2014 Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his orchestral piece Become Ocean, which
Alex Ross of The New Yorker called "the loveliest apocalypse in musical history" (Ross 2013,
[page needed]
). It was premiered in 2013 by Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony and performed
by the same conductor and orchestra at the 2014 Spring For Music music festival at Carnegie
Hall. Adams had never been to Carnegie Hall before hearing his work played there to a sold-out
house (Fonseca-Wollheim 2014). Become Ocean has been recorded in surround-sound on
Cantaloupe Music, with a release date of September 30, 2014 (Davis and Adams 2014). All his
works are published by Taiga Press (BMI) and available from Theodore Front Musical Literature
(n.d.)
His most recent work, Sila: The Breath of the World, represents the "air element," following the
representation of water in Become Ocean and the "earth element" in Inuksuit, an outdoor
percussion piece (Patner 2012). His music, he says, is "our awareness of the world in which we
live and the world's awareness of us" (Friedman 2014).

List of works

Green Corn Dance (1974) for percussion ensemble

Night Peace (1976) for antiphonal choirs, solo soprano, harp, and percussion

songbirdsongs (197480) for 2 piccolos and 3 percussion

Strange Birds Passing (1983) for flute choir

up into the silence (1978/84) (poem by E. E. Cummings) for voice and piano

How the Sun Came to the Forest (1984) (poem by John Haines) for chorus and alto flute,
English horn, percussion, harp, and strings

The Far Country of Sleep (1988) for orchestra

Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter, Coyote Builds North America
(198690) for theater

magic song for one who wishes to live and the dead who climb up to the sky (1990) for
voice and piano

Dream in White-on-White (1992) for orchestra

Earth and the Great Weather (199093) for theater, libretto published in the book
"Inukshuk" edited by ARBOS Company for Music & Theater, Vienna 1999, ISBN 385266-126-9

Five Yup'ik Dances (199194) for solo harp

Crow and Weasel (199394) (story by Barry Lopez) for theater

Sauyatugvik: the Time of Drumming (1995) for orchestra

Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (199195) for orchestra

Sauyatugvik: The Time of Drumming (1996) version for 2 pianos, timpani, and 4
percussion

Five Athabascan Dances (1992/96) for harp and percussion

Strange and Sacred Noise (199197) for percussion quartet

Make Prayers to the Raven (1996/98) flute, violin, harp, cello, and percussion

In the White Silence (1998) for orchestra

Qilyaun (1998) for four bass drums

Time Undisturbed (1999) for 3 shakuhachis, 3 kotos, and sh

In a Treeless Place, Only Snow (1999) for celesta, harp, 2 vibraphones, and string quartet

The Light That Fills the World (19992000) for orchestra

Among Red Mountains (2001) for solo piano

The Immeasurable Space of Tones (19982001) for violin, vibraphone, piano, sustaining
keyboard, contrabass instrument

The Farthest Place (2001) for violin, vibraphone, marimba, piano, double bass

After the Light (2001) for alto flute, vibraphone, harp

Dark Wind (2001) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, marimba, piano

Red Arc/Blue Veil (2002) for piano, mallet percussion, and processed sounds

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002) for solo percussion and processed sounds

Poem of the Forgotten (2004) (poem by John Haines) for voice and piano

for Lou Harrison (2004, premiere 2005) for string quartet, string orchestra, and 2 pianos

...and bells remembered... (2005) for bowed crotales, orchestra bells, chimes, vibraphone
and bowed vibraphone

for Jim (rising) (2006) for three trumpets and three trombones

Always Very Soft (2007) for percussion trio

Dark Waves (2007) for orchestra and electronic sounds

Little Cosmic Dust Poem (2007) for voice (medium) and piano

Nunataks (Solitary Peaks) (2007) for solo piano

Three High Places (2007) for solo violin

The Light Within (2007) for alto flute, bass clarinet, vibraphone/crotales, piano, violin,
cello and electronic sounds

Sky with Four Suns and Sky with Four Moons (2008) for four choirs

the place we began (2008) four electro-acoustic soundscapes

Inuksuit (2009) for nine to ninety-nine percussion

Four Thousand Holes (2010) for piano, percussion, and electronic sounds

"I L I M A Q" (2012), a drum-kit opera, premiered at the University of Texas at Austin,
performed by Glenn Kotche

Become Ocean (2013) for orchestra, premiered at the Seattle Symphony, June 20, 2013,
conducted by Ludovic Morlot

Become River (2013) for chamber orchestra, premiered by the Saint Paul Chamber
Orchestra, April 3, 2014, conducted by Steven Schick

Sila: The Breath of the World (2014) for choir, percussion, strings, brass, and woodwinds
premiered at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, July 25, 2014, led by Doug
Perkins

Awards and recognition

Adams was the recipient of the 2010 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. He was cited
by the selection committee for melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique
artistic vision that transcends stylistic boundaries (Moore 2010)

The Callithumpian Consort's recording of Adams' Four Thousand Holes was noted as one
of The New Yorker's Best Classical Recordings of 2011 (Ross 2011).

In 2012, he received the Heinz Award.

Adams was the recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his composition
Become Ocean.

In November 2014, Adams was named the Musical America 2015 Composer of the Year
(NewMusicBox Staff 2014).

On February 8, 2015, Adams was awarded a GRAMMY in the category Best

Contemporary Classical Composition for his "Become Ocean"

In fall of 2015, he will become the ninth recipient since inception of the William
Schuman Award, a $50,000 prize given occasionally by Columbia University to
"recognize the lifetime achievement of an American composer..." [2]

Discography

songbirdsongs (1981) [LP][full citation needed]

A Northern Suite/Night Peace (1983) [LP][full citation needed]

Forest Without Leaves (1987) [LP][full citation needed]

The Far Country (1993)[full citation needed]

1. Dream in White on White

2. Night Peace
3. The Far Country of Sleep

Earth and the Great Weather (1995)[full citation needed]

Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1997) nominated for the 1999 Grammy
Award in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition and Best Orchestral Performance
categories[full citation needed]

Dark Wind (2002)[full citation needed]

The Light That Fills the World (2002)[full citation needed]

1. The Farthest Place

2. The Light That Fills the World
3. The Immeasurable Space of Tones

In the White Silence (2003)[full citation needed]

Strange and Sacred Noise (2005)[full citation needed]

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2006)[full citation needed]

for Lou Harrison (2007)[full citation needed]

red arc/blue veil (2007)[full citation needed]

1. Dark Waves
2. Among Red Mountains
3. Qilyuan
4. red arc/blue veil

The Place We Began (2009)[full citation needed] appears on 2009's Best (Mostly) 'New Music',
from WNYC

Four Thousand Holes (2011)[full citation needed]

1. Four Thousand Holes

2. . . . and bells remembered . . .

songbirdsongs (2012)[full citation needed]

1. songbirdsongs
2. Strange Birds Passing

Inuksuit (2013). So Percussion Ensemble, Doug Perkins (cond.). CD and DVD recording.
Cantaloupe Music [no catalog number].

Become Ocean (2014)[full citation needed](Adams 2014)

The Wind In High Places (2015)[full citation needed](Adams 2015)