John Adams

New England-born, California-based composer John Adams is a pivotal figure in 20th century classical music -- he can be viewed as either the last of the minimalists or the first of the post-minimalists. Though his style shares several traits with that of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and Terry Riley, Adams' sound used a wide variety of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas, starting with his earliest works, making his music perhaps more accessible to a new listener who might find works like Riley's In C or Glass' Einstein on the Beach too forbidding. John Adams was born on Febru...