FREE Open Rehearsal: JOHN LUTHER ADAMS World Premiere of “Prophecies of Fire”
Go behind the scenes and observe CMNW’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances. An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal.
Join us for a unique view into creating new music as Sandbox Percussion rehearses John Luther Adams’s final major work for chamber ensemble, Prophecies of Fire, co-commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest.
This year’s open rehearsals are sponsored by:
George & Deborah Olsen
Reed College, Kaul Auditorium
Wednesday, 7/10 • 11:00 am PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- JOHN LUTHER ADAMS “Prophecies of Fire”
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS Prophecies of Fire
CMNW Co-Commission • World Premiere
…and I come back to find the stars misplaced,
and the smell of a world that has burned.
— Jimi HendrixMy earliest musical awakening was as a drummer. From rock bands to playing timpani in a symphony orchestra, my deepest physical connections to music have been through percussion. Over the past five decades, my life’s work has led me to compose music for orchestra, string quartet, piano, human voice, electronics, and a wide variety of other media. Now, in my 72nd year, I’ve returned to the place I began.
At this stage in my creative life, I feel a special responsibility and joy in working with the next generations of musicians. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Sandbox Percussion perform my extended cycle for percussion quartet, Strange and Sacred Noise. Since then, these extraordinary musicians have performed songbirdsongs, …and bells remembered…, and Inuksuit. I’ve come to regard these four young men as the foremost interpreters of my percussion music. And I welcomed the invitation to compose Prophecies of Fire—a concert-length work specifically for them.
The musicians surround the listeners, enveloping them in a continuum of timbres, pitches, dynamics, and velocities, rising from the threshold of whispers, slowly swelling into a vast sea of sound— like the wildfires, superstorms, and tides of darkness rising all around us. But beyond any poetic or metaphorical associations, this work is a celebration of the elemental power of sound itself to touch, to move, and perhaps even to transform human consciousness.
—© John Luther Adams
Artists
-
John Luther Adams
Composer
-
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 Inuksuit and 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.
Since leaving Alaska, JLA and his wife Cynthia have made their home in the deserts of Mexico, Chile, and the southwestern United States.
-
Sandbox Percussion
Percussion Ensemble
-
Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), Grammy-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion is dedicated to artistry in contemporary chamber music. The ensemble was brought together in 2011 by a love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together. Today, Sandbox Percussion captivates worldwide audiences with visually and aurally stunning performances.
Sandbox Percussion’s 2021 album, Seven Pillars, was nominated for two Grammy Awards—Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The ensemble performed the piece more than 15 times throughout the United States and Europe last season, including at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
In the 2023-24 season, Sandbox Percussion performs Seven Pillars at the VIVO Music Festival (Columbus, OH), the New School (New York), APERIO, Music of the Americas (Houston), the Frost School of Music (Miami), Brown University (Providence, RI), and the Peace Center (Greenville, SC), among other venues.
This season, Sandbox Percussion also releases their fourth album, Wilderness, featuring the piece of the same name by experimental composer Jerome Begin. Other season highlights include two performances at the Park Avenue Armory (New York), featuring premieres by Chris Cerrone and Viet Cuong, a performance at the 92nd Street Y with pianist and new-music champion Conor Hanick featuring the New York premiere of two works composed for them by Christopher Cerrone and by Tyshawn Sorey, and an appearance at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Sandbox Percussion will also continue to champion Viet Cuong’s acclaimed concerto for percussion quartet, Re(new)al, including performances with the Des Moines Symphony and with the Albany Symphony, which commissioned the piece.
Besides maintaining an international performance schedule, Sandbox Percussion holds the position of Ensemble-in-Residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School’s College of Performing Arts. In 2016, Sandbox Percussion founded the Sandbox Percussion Seminar, introducing percussion students to the leading percussion chamber music of the day.
Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.