John Luther Adams

JACK cherishes a rich relationship with John Luther Adams, tackling his complete string quartets and continuing to pursue new collaborations. These include the recent premiere of Waves and Particles, which received a new choreography by Liz Gerring Dance Company at ICA Boston in the fall of 2022; and two GRAMMY-nominated albums, Lines Made By Walking (2020) and Sila: The Breath of the World (2022).

JACK performs John Luther Adams’s work at Tippet Rise Arts Center, 2019.

Bio.

For John Luther Adams, music is a lifelong search for home—an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and remember our place within the larger community of life on earth.

Living for almost 40 years in northern Alaska, JLA discovered a unique musical world grounded in space, stillness, and elemental forces. In the 1970s and into the ’80s, he worked full time as an environmental activist. But the time came when he felt compelled to dedicate himself entirely to music. He made this choice with the belief that, ultimately, music can do more than politics to change the world. Since that time, he has become one of the most widely admired composers in the world, receiving the Pulitzer Prize, a Grammy Award, and many other honors.

In works such as Become Ocean, In the White Silence, and Canticles of the Holy Wind, Adams brings the sense of wonder that we feel outdoors into the concert hall. And in outdoor works such as Inuksuitand Sila: The Breath of the World, he employs music as a way to reclaim our connections with place, wherever we may be.

A deep concern for the state of the earth and the future of humanity drives Adams to continue composing. As he puts it: “If we can imagine a culture and a society in which we each feel more deeply responsible for our own place in the world, then we just may be able to bring that culture and that society into being.”

Since leaving Alaska, JLA and his wife Cynthia have made their home in the deserts of Mexico, Chile, and the southwestern United States.

Collaboration Highlights

  • JACK joined New York-based Liz Gerring Dance Company to debut “Harbor,” a world premiere evening-length performance featuring a newly commissioned string quartet by Adams. Read the Boston Globe review here.

  • Nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award (Best Orchestral Performance), Adams' large-scale Sila: the Breath of the World features JACK alongside The Crossing and musicians and percussionists from the University of Michigan. Listen here.

  • This GRAMMY-nominated album (Best Chamber Music Performance, 2022) includes JACK’s interpretations of Adams’ "Lines Made by Walking" (2019) and "untouched" (2016). Listen Here.

  • JACK’s first album of Adams’ music was praised by NPR as “a striking new album of austere landscapes and mysterious light.” (Tom Huizenga, Deceptive Cadence, NPR). Listen Here.