John Luther Adams (Photo: Evan Hurd)
An eager sense of anticipation filled Benaroya Hall on June 20 as audience members gathered to hear the world premiere performance of John Luther Adams’ newest work for orchestra, Become Ocean. The crowd was buzzing with questions. How exactly would Adams’ work channel the majestic waterways of the Pacific Northwest? Would Become Ocean follow the pattern of Adams’ other works, which immerse listeners in evocative soundscapes? Most importantly, what would the music sound like?
Adams is one of contemporary music’s most idiosyncratic composers. Born in 1953 in Mississippi, a passion for the natural world and wild spaces brought Adams to Alaska as a young man, where he set up shop in a remote cabin in the forest. Since then, he has called Alaska home (though he’s since traded his isolated cabin for the more urban surroundings of Fairbanks). Life amidst the Alaskan wilderness has inspired and informed Adams’ unique compositional style, which seeks to musically re-create the experience of being in nature.