Composer, conductor, and creative thinker—John Adams occupies a unique position in the world of music. His works stand out among contemporary classical compositions for their depth of expression, brilliance of sound, and the profoundly humanist nature of their themes. His operas and oratorios such as Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic, and El Niño have transformed the genre of contemporary music theatre. Spanning more than three decades, works such as Harmonielehre, Shaker Loops, Doctor Atomic Symphony, and his Violin Concerto are among the most performed and influential of all contemporary classical music.

As a conductor Adams has led the world’s major orchestras, programming his own works with a wide variety of repertoire. Among his honorary doctorates are those from Yale, Harvard, Northwestern, and Cambridge Universities, and from The Juilliard School. A provocative writer, he is author of the highly acclaimed autobiography Hallelujah Junction and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review. Since 2009 Adams has been Creative Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Born and raised in New England, Adams learned the clarinet from his father and played in marching bands and community orchestras during his formative years. He began composing at age ten and his first orchestral pieces were performed while he was still a teenager. Moving to the San Francisco area in the early 1970s, Adams developed long-standing relationships with both the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Adams is recipient of both Spain’s BBVA Foundation ​Frontiers of Knowledge Award and the Netherlands’ Erasmus Prize ​“for notable contributions to European culture, society and social science.” His 2002 work On the Transmigration of Souls was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the New York Philharmonic recording of it won three GRAMMY® Awards. His advocacy of the music of his colleagues won him the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University in recognition of his ​“exceptional commitment to American composers.”

Recent conducting engagements include The Cleveland Orchestra; St. Louis Symphony; Rotterdam Philharmonic; Gran Teatre del Liceu for the European première of Adams’s most recent opera, Antony and Cleopatra; performances of Girls of the Golden West with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra; Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich; Netherlands Radio Philharmonic to present his opera The Death of Klinghoffer; Iceland Symphony; and Czech Philharmonic at the Prague Spring Festival.

In salute of Adams’s 75th birthday in 2022, Nonesuch Records released the 40-disc John Adams Collected Works, a box set of recordings spanning more than four decades of the composer’s career with the label. Also available as a box set is the Berliner Philharmoniker’s ​John Adams Edition, a CD and DVD collection comprising seven of his works, conducted by Rattle, Dudamel, Petrenko, Gilbert, and Adams.

Austrian-English soprano Anna Prohaska made her début at age 18 at Berlin’s Komische Oper as Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and soon after with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, entering the ensemble at age 23. She has since gone on to have an extraordinary international career with some of the world’s greatest opera houses and orchestras, though the Staatsoper remains her artistic home. 

Operatic highlights include Zabelle in the world première of George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this and Morgana (Alcina) for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Constance (Les Dialogues des Carmélites), and Nannetta (Falstaff) for the Royal Opera House; Pelléas et Mélisande for the Hamburgische Staatsoper; Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Merab (Saul), and Angelica (Orlando) for Theater an der Wien; Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for La Scala; the title role in Orphée et Eurydice for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at Opéra national de Paris; Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) in Baden-Baden; Iphis (Jephtha) in Amsterdam; and Marzelline (Fidelio), Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Blonde, Ännchen (Der Freischütz), and Adele (Die Fledermaus) for the Bayerische Staatsoper. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, Prohaska has appeared as Vitellia, Zerlina, Despina, Deola in Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore, Susanna, and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s Lear. 

Prohaska is noted for her diverse repertoire with the Deutsche Staatsoper, and her roles include Anne Trulove, Susanna, Sophie, Pamina, Ilia, Oscar, Blonde, Poppea, Euridice, Aricie, Ännchen, and Anna Reich, as well as world premières by Beat Furrer and Peter Ruzicka. Conductors she has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Jordan, Gustavo Dudamel, and René Jacobs. 

In huge demand on the concert platform, Prohaska has performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker since her début with them at age 24, performing under Rattle, Harding, and Abbado. Other orchestras include the Vienna Philharmonic under Boulez; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jansons, Harding, Blomstedt, and Nézet-Séguin; London Symphony Orchestra under Rattle; Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Roth; Bavarian Radio Orchestra under Gardiner; Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst; and Boston Symphony Orchestra under Dohnányi. Recent seasons have included artistic residencies at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kammerakademie Potsdam, and Philharmonie Luxembourg. 

The 2023/24 season included Angelica (Orlando) under Ivor Bolton for Teatro Real in Madrid; Silvia (Violetter Schnee) under Matthias Pintscher for the Deutsche Staatsoper; l’Ange in Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise under Kent Nagano for the Hamburgische Staatsoper; and a return to Festival d’Aix-en-Provence where she appeared alongside Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Songs and Fragments directed by Barrie Kosky. On the concert platform, Prohaska gave the world première of Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Mikko Franck. Other performances included Mozart arias under Ivor Bolton for the Mozartwoche in Salzburg; Mendelssohn’s Hör’ mein Bitten and Infelice, Op. 94, with the Kammerakademie Potsdam; her Serpent & Fire program with Il Giardino Armonico for the Grafenegg Festival; the Paris début of her Ophelia program at the Athénée Théâtre; and appearances with the Phantasm ensemble at the Wigmore Hall, and the London Mozart Players for their 75th-anniversary concert led by Jonathan Bloxham. Tours in the 2023/24 season included a solo concert tour with Ensemble Modern under Sir George Benjamin featuring the world première of Filidei’s Cantico delle Creature, a collaborative dance project with Emanuele Soavi Incompany and Lautten Compagney, and a recital tour of her Paradise Lost program alongside Julius Drake.

Prohaska’s various recordings and music videos made her the subject of a documentary feature, The Fabulous World of Anna Prohaska, directed by Andreas Morell in 2013. Her first solo album, Sirène, was released in 2011 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, followed by Enchanted Forest in 2013 and Behind the Lines in 2014. Recent albums include the chart-topping Serpent & Fire with Il Giardino Armonico, Paradise Lost with Julius Drake, Bach: Redemption with Lautten Compagney, and Celebration of Life in Death with La Folia Barockorchester for Alpha Classics; and György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente with Isabelle Faust for Harmonia Mundi. The 2022/23 season also saw the release of her album Maria Mater Meretrix with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern for Alpha Classics.