Chamber Symphony / Grand Pianola Music

American composer and conductor, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University. He served as composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Festival in Vermont (1970), taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (1972-1982), and was new-music adviser and then composer-in-residence with the San Francisco Symphony (1978-1985).

Essentially classical in style, his music is strongly affected both by American popular idioms such as jazz, ragtime, swing, and rock, which he uses frequently in his work, and by experimental movements in atonality, electronic music, and the minimalist creations of composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley. His visceral approach to music, and the wide range of his compositions, including piano pieces, choral works, orchestral works, and opera, have made Adams one of the most widely performed young composers in the United States. Critics, however, disagree over the quality of his work, and audiences have alternately booed and cheered at performances. Among his best-known works are Harmonium (1980), Grand Pianola Music (1983), Harmonielehre (1985), and the opera Nixon in China (1987), written in collaboration with director Peter Sellars and poet Alice Goodman.

"Adams, John Coolidge (composer)," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000