John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls Marks 25 Years Since 9/11
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John Adams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls returns to concert halls around the world this season, marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. At the center of the commemorations, Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic perform the work in New York before taking it on a major European tour.
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11, On the Transmigration of Souls was premiered by the orchestra in September 2002. John Adams conceived the work not as a narrative of the attacks but as a “memory space,” combining orchestra, adult and children’s choruses, and recorded sounds and voices. Names of victims and fragments of missing-person notices and personal remembrances emerge through the musical texture, creating a meditation on memory and loss. The work was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music and has become one of the most significant musical responses to 9/11.
Gustavo Dudamel opens his first season as Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic with performances of On the Transmigration of Souls in New York (Sep 16–19), marking the 25th anniversary in the city for which the work was originally written.
The Philharmonic then carries Adams’s musical memorial beyond New York on its first European tour with Dudamel as Music and Artistic Director. On the Transmigration of Souls is performed at the Philharmonie de Paris (October 10), L’Auditori in Barcelona (October 12), Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid (October 13), Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (October 19), and Musikverein in Vienna (October 22). The Barcelona performance marks the work’s Spanish premiere, with Barcelona’s Orfeó Català joining the orchestra for the performances in Spain and later tour dates.
Other major performances this fall include Marin Alsop conducting the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil (Sep 10–12) and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Oct 15–18), underscoring the work’s enduring international resonance.
The commemorations lead into another milestone: Adams’s 80th birthday on February 15, 2027, celebrated with major spotlights around the world. Adams takes to the podium with the National Symphony Orchestra for Scheherazade.2 with Leila Josefowicz; the London Symphony Orchestra on tour in London, Paris, and Germany; the New York Philharmonic for After the Fall with Víkingur Ólafsson; and The Cleveland Orchestra for Slonimsky’s Earbox. In California, the San Francisco Symphony presents an extensive survey of his music, while Adams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program featuring the Doctor Atomic Symphony and choruses from his operas. On the opera stage, Nixon in China returns in Washington, Berlin, and other cities before receiving its La Scala premiere in Milan, while Doctor Atomic receives new productions in Munich, Zürich, and San José.
> Further information on Work: On the Transmigration of Souls
Photo: Toru Hasumi