John Adams News

FIrst, of all, I have to apologize to the Vancouver Opera and to punctual people in general for showing up at three minutes past curtain time yet again.

What could possibly be that interesting about one soprano singing classical art songs, accompanied only by a pianist, and standing alone on a bare stage in a white chapel, and why would a large number of people pay a substantial sum to listen? That question may have been on some minds at the Memorial Chapel at Union College Saturday night until ...

The near total the nearly total absence of Chinese musical motifs in Nixon in China is surprising to a contemporary listener.

Or something like that. Polanyi is required reading in my daughter's sociology grad school theory class.

Saturday night's avid concert by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra aimed to make an impression with variety, beauty and power.

Album: Nixon in China In stores: Now Why we care: Finally, a new recording of Adams' iconic opera in a three-CD release.

John Adams , composer of "Doctor Atomic" and "Nixon in China", said "without the tradition of creating new art, we would not be the country we are." Adams, in remarks accepting his 2009 NEA Opera Honor at a gala ceremony November 14, said, "I know the idea of giving money to the arts, and, God forbid, to an individual artist, is controversial, but ...

All Songs Considered 's list of the 50 most important recordings of the decade begins with composer John Adams and runs through Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, singer Barbara Cook, and other "superstars" celebrated soprano Marilyn Horne, composer John Adams, and other opera greats at the NEA Opera Honors last night.

November is always packed tightly with important classical music events but this year's schedule is even more noteworthy, due in part to the Los Angeles Philharmonic's three-week-long "West Coast/Left Coast" festival.

Ensemble Music Society welcomes the St. Lawrence String Quartet to its series Wednesday in a program featuring a new work written for it by John Adams, one of the most prominent living American composers.

Last Thursday, under the direction of Robert Spano, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed two monumental pieces of the classical repertoire.

The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, founded in 1841, is just a year older than the New York Philharmonic , but with its avowed specialty - music of the Viennese Classical era - this ensemble makes the conservative Philharmonic look like a wild-eyed new-music band.

While John Adams is on nearly everyone's short list of America's most important living composers, it's a curiosity of his catalog that there's only a modicum of chamber music.

The Diary is in thrall to the hilarious blog of John Adams, the composer of Nixon in China.

John Adams: "Nixon in China"; Robert Orth, Maria Kanyova and others, with Opera Colorado Chorus and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop .

Osmo Vnsk Last week Osmo Vnsk began his visit to the podium in Davies Symphony Hall with a long overdue first performance by the San Francisco Symphony of John Adams' "Slonimsky's Earbox." This week he began the second program of his visit with the first San Francisco Symphony performance of the first symphony by his fellow Finn, Aulis Sallinen.

John Adams 4:30 p.m. Oct. 28-29; Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. Free. 203-432-0670, yale.edu/whc . Perhaps the most celebrated living American composer, John Adams is nearly as adept with the English language as he is with musical notation.

In spite of the lugubrious theme of the program, thunderous ovations hailed the opening of the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 46th season on Oct.

The Cincinnati-based American Classical Music Hall of Fame announces five inductees in 2009, including May Festival music director James Conlon.