“John Adams...may be the most vital and eloquent composer in America.”
• Full Biography
• Press Info
“An American artist’s Wanderjahre for our time... John Adams is a superb writer.”
Watch NEA Awards Video Tribute.
Driving Mr. Copland
Jan 20, 2013
And much to my astonishment I found myself driving down Route 280 in my dilapidated turquoise blue VW bug with its clattering engine and moldy upholstery with the idolized composer of my youth sitting, slightly nervously, in the passenger seat. I don’t recall the conversation. The car was so noisy it may have been difficult to talk much.
22 Comments Continue ReadingGet Carter! Part II
Jan 10, 2013
“Marcel—you’re such a demanding listener!” I razz him. “Oh well, what can I expect from someone who lost his virginity while listening to the Sessions Violin Concerto on his car radio!”
6 Comments Continue ReadingGet Carter! Part I
Jan 06, 2013When Carter died in November at the age of 103, we were reminded that this composer, still writing music in the year 2012, had accompanied Charles Ives to concerts in the New York of the 1930’s when the Rite of Spring was still a shocker.
11 Comments Continue ReadingAll that glitters is not gold
Dec 06, 2012Camille Paglia, who knows her Emily Dickinson and her Kafka (both artists with zero “fan base” in their lifetimes), has journeyed to the wrong continent, and what she has found glittering there is fool’s gold.
8 Comments Continue Reading
