John Coolidge Adams15 February 1947-

John Coolidge Adams was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1947.

He was all around the New England area where he was greatly influenced by New England's musical culture.

He graduated from Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire.

His father taught him how to play the clarinet, and he was a clarinetist in community ensembles.

He later studied the instrument further with Felix Viscuglia, clarinetist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Early Life

Adams began composing at the age of ten and first heard his music performed around the age of 13 or 14.

After he matriculated at Harvard University in 1965 he studied composition under Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, Earl Kim, and David Del Tredici.

While at Harvard, he conducted the Bach Society Orchestra and was a reserve clarinetist for both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Company of Boston.

He earned two degrees from Harvard University (BA 1971, MA 1972) and was among the first students to be allowed to submit a musical composition for a Harvard undergraduate thesis.

His piece "American Standard" was recorded and released on Obscure Records in 1975. He taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1972 until 1984.

He served as musical producer for a number of series for the Public Broadcasting System including the award-winning series, The Adams Chronicles in 1976 and 1977.

John Adams

The music of John Adams is usually categorized as minimalist or post-minimalist although in interview he has categorized himself in typically witty fashion as a 'post-style' composer.

While Adams employs minimalist techniques, such as repeating patterns, he is not a strict follower of the movement.

Adams was born a generation after Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and his writing is more developmental and directionalized, containing climaxes and other elements of Romanticism.

Musical Style

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Nixon in China (1989)

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for El Dorado (1998)

Pulitzer Prize for Music for On the Transmigration of Souls (2003) Grammy Award for Best Classical Album for On the Transmigration of

Souls (2005) Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for On the

Transmigration of Souls (2005) Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for On

the Transmigration of Souls (2005) Harvard Arts Medal (2007) Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Northwestern University (2008) Honorary Doctorate of Music from Harvard University (2012) California Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts

Awards

His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)

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)

Shaker Loops (1978), a minimalist four-movement work for strings.

His well-known operas include Nixon in China (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China

Doctor Atomic (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb.

Famous Works