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John Luther Adams Named Musical America’s 2015 Composer of the Year

In making the award announcement, Musical America referred to Adams as perhaps “the world’s only Green composer.”

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

John Luther Adams has been named Musical America’s 2015 composer of the year. The award announcement comes less than six months after Adams was named the recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his work Become Ocean. Adams’s pieces are frequently connected to the natural world, particularly the wilds of Alaska. In making the award announcement, Musical America referred to Adams as perhaps “the world’s only Green composer.”

In this NewMusicBox interview from 2011, Adams speaks at length about his approach to creating music and the profound role place has often played in his work.


Fellow awardees include Peter Sellars (Musician of the Year), Gianandrea Noseda (Conductor of the Year), violinist Lisa Batiashvili (Instrumentalist of the Year), and Christine Goerke (Vocalist of the Year). The awards will be presented during a ceremony at the Century Club in New York City on December 11, 2014.