John Adams is one of America’s most admired and respected composers today. He’s also a conductor eagerly sought after by America’s major orchestras, a writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, a chamber conductor, and a Pulitzer prize and multi-Grammy-winning composer of enormous range and technical command.
Adams’ work stands out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. Because of his ability to integrate different styles, including American popular forms, his standing today has been of compared in importance to American musical expression to that of Aaron Copland in the forties and Leonard Bernstein in the fifties.
In a segment that aired on October 18, 2009 for WNET.org’s weekly arts program, SundayArts, Paula Zahn interviewed John Adams, composer of the new work City Noir performed for Dudamel’s inaugural concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
