Described by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as One of the most original musical thinkers of the new century, multi award winning composer John Luther Adams celebrates his 70th birthday on January 23rd.
On writing music Luther Adams says, “If we can imagine a culture and a society in which we each feel more deeply responsible for our own place in the world, then we just may be able to bring that culture and that society into being”. He and Alex Ross will come together on February 3rd at the Great Northern Festival for an online conversation on environmentalism and the Luther Adam’s memoir Silences So Deep and Ten Thousand Birds which will be performed by Alarm Will Sound on the last day of the festival. Tickets and more information.
On March 3rd the Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the world premiere of Proximity a powerful trio of new works that confronts head-on some of the greatest challenges affecting us as a society: yearning for connection in a world driven by technology; the devastating impact of gun violence on cities and neighbourhoods; and the need to respect and protect our natural resources. The trio includes Night Composed by Luther Adams with libretto by John Haines. Tickets and more information.
Vespers of the blessed Earth is Luther Adam’s latest work and will receive its world premiere on March 30th with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Crossing and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Luther Adams writes “Vespers are night prayers. My distant model was the Vespers of Monteverdi. But rather than prayers to the blessed virgin, these are vespers to the blessed earth”.
On June 8–10, New York Philharmonic and Chorus lead by Jaap van Zweden give the New York premiere of Become Desert that was co-commissioned by the orchestra form David Geffen Hall. The San Francisco Chronicle descibed the piece as a "expanse of shimmering, palpitating musical magic — as beautiful and entrancing a new work as anything to come along in years". Tickets and more information.
Explore John Luther Adams' catalogue – there’s a rich offering of music from string quartets to large scale orchestra works and percussion ensemble. Music such as the trilogy Become River, Become Ocean – for which he won the Pulitzer Prize – and Become Desert bring the sense of wonder that we feel outdoors into the concert hall. Inuksuit and Sila: The Breath of the World the latter nominated for a 2023 Grammy, are performed outdoors and using music to reclaim our connections with place, wherever we may be.
