John Adams: World Premiere of String Quartet

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(January 2009)

John Adams continues as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Composer of the Year in 2009. In this role he will conduct two special programs (January 16, 17), collectively featuring Doctor Atomic Symphony, The Nixon Tapes, version 3 (with James Maddalena, Russell Thomas, Jessica Rivera, and Hila Plitmann), and On the Transmigration of Souls. While in Pittsburgh Adams will visit the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall for a discussion of his recently released memoirs, "Hallelujah Junction," presented by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures (January 12).

(Adams will return to Pittsburgh in March to conduct violinist Leila Josefowicz and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in two performances of The Dharma at Big Sur on March 13, 15.)

He travels next to New York City to join in The Juilliard School’s annual FOCUS! Festival. Led by Joel Sachs, this year’s festival features music from California, and opens on January 23 with a program that includes Son of Chamber Symphony, performed by the New Juilliard Ensemble.

A major highlight of the Festival is the world premiere of Adams’s String Quartet (January 29) performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ). This two-movement piece is Adams’s second full-length work for string quartet and contrasts with its predecessor (John’s Book of Alleged Dances) in that it does not include electronics. String Quartet was written for SLSQ and was commissioned by The Juilliard School, Stanford Lively Arts at Stanford University, and The Banff Centre.

(SLSQ will perform the west coast premiere of String Quartet as the centerpiece of the final performance of their 20th-anniversary celebration in a concert presented by Stanford Lively Arts on April 5.)

On January 31 Adams will conduct one concert performance of his 1990 opera, The Death of Klinghoffer—a fictionalized account of the infamous Achille Lauro incident in 1985, in which Palestinian terrorists boarded an Italian cruise ship, held its passengers hostage, and killed an elderly, Jewish, wheelchair-bound American named Leon Klinghoffer.

In May Adams will visit Los Angeles as composer, conductor, and author. His first engagement will be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in a Green Umbrella concert, featuring Son of Chamber Symphony and works by two young composers (May 12). On May 14 he will appear at Central Library for a discussion of his memoirs, presented by ALOUD. Adams returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to conduct Jessica Rivera and Russell Thomas in two performances of his most recent opera, A Flowering Tree (May 15, 17).

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