Kaija Saariaho’s Terra Memoria reflects on memory and change, evoking landscapes both personal and physical, while Wadada Leo Smith’s String Quartet No. 5 (In the Diaspora: Earthquakes and Sunrise Missions) conjures the forces of upheaval and renewal. In Warblework, Cassandra Miller transforms the intricate songs of North American thrushes into layered, weaving lines that blur the boundaries between human and avian voices. John Luther Adams’ The Wind in High Places turns string instruments into an aeolian harp, evoking vast, windswept landscapes. The programme also includes a brand new commission by London based composer Blasio Kavuma.

Ligeti Quartet: Sunrise Missions

Milton Court Concert Hall

This is a night for mysteries and magic, as Alexander Shelley leads the NAC Orchestra and participants of the NACO Mentorship Program through some of the classical world’s most otherworldly music from both traditional and contemporary composers.

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Shelley conducts The Rite of Spring

National Arts Centre

Has climate change reached a tipping point? So asks Oscar-winning film and TV composer Rachel Portman’s new concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra. Featuring poems by Nick Drake, it forms the centrepiece of Grammy Award-winning maestro Ludovic Morlot’s nature-themed programme, poised between Sibelius’s orchestral hymn to the Finnish forests and American eco-activist composer John Luther Adams’s choral prayers to Mother Earth and her endangered species.

Tipping Points with Brighton Festival Chorus

Brighton Dome

Making up more than 70% of the earth’s surface, water is life’s most essential element. Come listen to a program of pieces by composers who seek to capture water’s power, serenity, and majesty.  

Water Works

Numerica Performing Arts Center

Join us for an enchanting evening with "Water Chants and Love," featuring music that explores the connections between nature and emotion. The concert begins with Thomas Adès's "Shanty – Over the Sea," a modern take on traditional sea shanties, followed by John Luther Adams's serene "Become River," which evokes the journey of water from stream to river. After intermission, enjoy Sergei Rachmaninoff's lush and virtuosic Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18. The evening concludes with Inocente Carreño's "Glosa Sinfónica 'Margariteña'," a vibrant tribute to Venezuela's Margarita Island, rich with folk elements and colorful orchestration.

Water Chants & Love

Oak Ridge High School

Embodying “undivided devotion to the musical material,” the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices is a go-to collaborator for many of today’s most visionary composers. In Zankel Hall alone, they have premiered new works by such artists as Arvo Pärt, David Lang, and Ingram Marshall. In this performance—in the intimate, in-the-round Zankel Hall Center Stage configuration—they sing a world premiere by the category-defying Julia Wolfe, a US premiere by John Luther Adams that takes listeners on a journey through the geological layers of the Grand Canyon, and a recent work by Michael Gordon that combines playfully direct lyrics with sumptuously scored singing.

Theatre of Voices

Carnegie Hall

Following her thrilling 2023 recital debut with pianist Julius Drake, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron returns to PCMS with the “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) Parker Quartet. Their collaboration includes the premiere of a new song cycle for string quartet and voice by Anthony Cheung (co-commissioned by PCMS), as well as arrangements of Brahms’s and Mahler’s songs, and John Luther Adams’s stunningly serene The Wind in High Places.

Parker Quartet Fleur Barron, mezzo

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Aquarium is dedicated to her daughter Stephanie in thanks for introducing the composer to the world of tropical fish.

Flute Chamber Music

Royal Academy Of Music

Pianist and composer Julien Brocal returns to Tippet Rise in a special program which alternates between his own compositions and works by John Luther Adams. Julien Brocal is a longtime friend of the art center, having spent several weeks in residency to record his 2018 album Reflections. We are delighted to welcome him back for his third concert season appearance, and excited for a new project he will record with cellist Camille Thomas at Tippet Rise this year.

Julien Brocal, piano

Tippet Rise Art Center

Go behind the scenes and observe CMNW’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances. An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal. 

FREE Open Rehearsal: JOHN LUTHER ADAMS World Premiere of “Prophecies of Fire”

Reed College

This summer, enjoy the magic of the Curtis Recital Series from home with our summer broadcast series. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to enjoy never-before-broadcast performances every Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Broadcast: Music of the Earth

Curtis Institute of Music

Experience the profound connection between nature and music at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's presentation of Sibelius Symphony No.2. This captivating event is set to take place on Thursday, 6 June 2024, at 7:30pm in the prestigious Symphony Hall, Birmingham. 

Sibelius Symphony No.2 is not just a musical performance; it's an ode to the natural world, a celebration of the earth in its purest form. The symphony is envisioned by Sibelius as a "great river of melody," a testament to the composer's belief that nature itself is music. This evening promises to be an extraordinary journey through soundscapes that evoke the beauty and majesty of the natural world, with the Symphony being complemented by John Luther Adams’s choral epic, "Vespers of the Blessed Earth." This new masterpiece, receiving its UK premiere, transforms the imagery of clouds, canyons, and endangered birds into a soul-stirring auditory experience.

Under the baton of conductor Ludovic Morlot, with the talented CBSO Chorus and the University of Birmingham Voices, attendees are guaranteed an unforgettable two-hour musical exploration. The concert also features a 20-minute interval, providing a perfect moment to reflect on the beauty of the first half or anticipate the wonders of the second.

Tickets are priced between £26 and £59, with a per-ticket commission of £3.50 included for tickets over £15. The event offers various ways to save, including multi-buy discounts and reduced prices for students, 18-30s, under-18s, and benefit recipients, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to witness this magnificent blend of nature and music.

Join us for a pre-concert Members' Reception from 6.45pm and during the interval to enhance your evening. This event is not just a concert; it's an invitation to let the earth's beauty, in its simplest form, be enough. Book now to secure your place at this remarkable celebration of nature's music.

Sibelius Symphony No.2

The International Convention Centre

Lauded for her “intelligence, integrity and all- encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times) and “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post), Sara Davis Buechner takes on Ludwig Van Beethoven's first piano concerto. John Luther Adams' Become River explores a river's progress, and Robert Schumann's restlessly romantic fourth symphony departs from classical form with a single movement.

Beethoven's First Piano Concerto

Princeton University

Experience the vibrant traditions of Easter through the lens of Slavic and American composers with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony's concert, "A Slavic Easter." Scheduled for March 30, 2024, at 7:00 pm, this enchanting evening will take place in the Catherine Cassidy Gallagher Great Hall at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

"A Slavic Easter" promises an auditory journey that blends the rich, colorful sounds of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky with the spiritual soundscape of the American Midwest by John Luther Adams. The concert will feature Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture," a piece that captures the essence of Russian Orthodox liturgical themes. John Luther Adams' "Become River," a contemplative composition from 2010, and Tchaikovsky's emotionally profound "Symphony no. 6" will complete the evening's program, offering a diverse and immersive musical experience.

This event is a unique opportunity to explore the themes of renewal and tradition through music that crosses geographical and cultural boundaries. Whether you are a long-time classical music enthusiast or looking for a distinctive cultural experience, "A Slavic Easter" is sure to provide an unforgettable evening.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony at 319.273.3373 or visit their website. Don't miss this chance to celebrate the spirit of Easter with an evening of exceptional music.

Concert: A Slavic Easter

Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center

The Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble plays works by David Fulmer, Agata Zubel, John Cage, Lei Liang, Nyokabi Kariuki, and Ernesto Lecuona. This concert is dedicated to the memory of John Grimes (1946–2013, Boston Conservatory faculty 2005–2013).

Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble

Boston Conservatory Theater

Music inspired by geologic time and the sea bookend Chausson’s lush and sensuous Poème featuring Dorothy DeLay Prize Winner Luna Choi.

An Atlas of Deep Time by John Luther Adams was inspired by his “desire, amid the turbulence of human affairs, to hear the older, deeper resonances of the earth… Like the geologic layers of rocks beneath our feet, the densities and textures, the instrumental and harmonic colors are always changing, yet somehow the substance always seems to be the same… The earth is 4 billion 570 million years old. An Atlas of Deep Time lasts roughly 46 minutes, which equates to about 100 million years per minute. At that tempo, the entire history of the human family is represented in the dying reverberations of the last 25 milliseconds of this music.”

Festival Orchestra: French Romantics Debussy and Chausson

Aspen Meadows Resort

AMFS artist-faculty, all top musicians from renowned orchestras, opera companies, and conservatories, come together to play their favorite chamber music works. Always a joyful and creative 75 minutes of music-making.

Chamber Music

Co-commissioned by the AMFS and the Barry Lopez Foundation for Art & Environment, John Luther Adams's new work Crossing Open Ground will be played in an outdoor space in connection to the season theme, Adoration of the Earth. The work will be performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and as they play, the musicians will gradually move across the space.

John Luther Adams's Crossing Open Ground

Meadows Campus

These lunchtime discussions feature prominent performers, composers, and musicologists in lively discussions with AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher.

High Notes

Hotel Jerome

New music inspired by the climate crisis. Lose yourself in a world premiere by John Luther Adams, played by pianist Ralph Van Raat alongside new commissions by Ailís Ní Ríain and Alissa Firsova, all performed by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni.

Manchester International Festival: Sonic Geography

The Bridgewater Hall

Inspired by the irresistible fun of I prefer living in color, Sarah Gibson’s 2019 Left Coast Composition Competition winning work for percussion and ensemble, this program celebrates composers particularly adept at exploiting instruments’ timbral possibilities—from Errolyn Waller’s stormy characters in Dervish and Gabriel Fauré’s dreamy landscapes in the Op. 120 Piano Trio, to the evocative sounds of myths conjured by Karol Szymanowski.

Living in Color

Hillside Club

Noe Valley Ministry

This concert travels from music by a Hungarian refugee in New York, to an African-American composing music inspired by the sounds of the Gold Rush era, to a transcendent and meditative work by a composer born in Mississippi and inspired by the landscapes of Alaska.

The Light That Fills the World: Sounds from California to Alaska

Lesher Center for the Arts

With a view of the New York City skyline, Philharmonic musicians perform music with a story to tell by Pulitzer Prize winners Ellen Reid, John Luther Adams, and Jacob Druckman, plus Thea Musgrave. Hosted and curated by <strong>Nadia Sirota, Creative Partner.

Sound ON: Telling Tales

When Rachmaninoff first performed his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, it had the audience in raptures. The extraordinary pianist had written a showstopper, and audiences have loved its lush, romantic melodies for nearly 100 years. Now, the ever-adventurous pianist Dejan Lazić returns to the ACO to play it, in a new arrangement for piano and strings.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody

ACO On The Pier

Imagine an orchestra as a river. Or a bassoon becoming one with nature, exploring land, water and air. The latest adventure in our Harmony with Nature season begins with a contemporary classic by John Luther Adams. It embraces Terra, Clarice Assad’s Earth-inspired concerto, and it ends amid the changing seasons of Buenos Aires, with a live dance interpretation of Piazzolla’s intimate portrait of the city of tango.

Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

Southbank Centre

A century after its debut, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue still crackles with energy—its opening clarinet glissando an unmistakable call to the thrill of jazz-age America. Teddy Abrams leads the Louisville Orchestra in this timeless fusion of classical and jazz idioms.

The program also features the world premiere of a new work by Anthony Green, marking the culmination of his yearlong residency with the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps. Rooted in community and collaboration, Green’s work reflects the voices and stories of Louisville, bringing a fresh and personal dimension to the evening.

Rhapsody in Blue

The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Calgary Philharmonic join forces again to unite Alberta in Harmony. Hear Holst's popular suite The Planets, a magnificent seven-movement work and staple of orchestral repertoire that captures the celestial moods of each planet and its astrological character. Plus, experience the wonder and depth of the ocean in Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composition by John Luther Adams, Become Ocean.

John Luther Adams

Events

Upcoming events

5 - 18 Feb, 2026

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody · Australian Chamber Orchestra

Mar 21, 2026

Four Seasons of Buenos Aires · London Philharmonic Orchestra

24 - 25 Apr, 2026

Rhapsody in Blue · Louisville Orchestra

Apr 30, 2026

Alberta in Harmony: The Planets · Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Nov 27, 2025

Ligeti Quartet: Sunrise Missions · Barbican Centre

18 - 19 Jun, 2025

Shelley conducts The Rite of Spring · National Arts Centre Orchestra

About

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