John Adams: In The Center Of American Music

John Adams: In The Center Of American Music

By Frank J. Oteri
on January 1, 2001

JA
John Adams
Photo by Christine Alicino
Courtesy Nonesuch Records

Just three days after completing the score for El Niño, a 110-minute "Christmas oratorio" for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, John Adams invites NewMusicBox editor Frank J. Oteri to his home in Berkeley CA to talk about his newest work and how it fits in with his compositional aesthetics, his views on religion, and his role as one of America’s most popular composers.

November 11, 2000

Transcribed by Lisa Kang and Michael Moon

  1. Success as a Composer and Cultural Relevancy
  2. Our Current Cultural Landscape
  3. Youthful and Mature Composition
  4. Differences in Europe and America
  5. Success as an American Composer
  6. Practical Musicianship
  7. Setting Texts
  8. Amplification
  9. Religion
  10. A Totalist Oratorio?
  11. Beyond Experimentation
  12. Technology, Chamber Music and the Symphony

Sign up for our monthly NewMusicBox newsletter

You might also enjoy

NewMusicBox provides a space for those engaged with new music to communicate their experiences and ideas in their own words. Articles and commentary posted here reflect the viewpoints of their individual authors; their appearance on NewMusicBox does not imply endorsement by New Music USA.