UPDATE: The Seattle Symphony will present the New York premiere of John Luther Adams' Become Ocean at Carnegie Hall on the evening of May 6.
Music director Ludovic Morlot will lead the symphony in Adams' monumental oratorio, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in music earlier today. The Seattle Symphony originally commissioned the work, presenting the world premiere on June 20, 2013.
The symphony's Carnegie Hall program is part of the Spring for Music festival. More information about this program, which also includes Edgar Varèse's Déserts and Claude Debussy's La Mer, is available at springformusic.com.
When Roomful of Teeth violinist/vocalist Caroline Shaw won last year's Pulitzer Prize, it was a surprise, indeed.
No such indie surprise this year, though, as ecological minimalist John Luther Adams--long overdue a big career gong--has taken home Columbia U's biggest laurel for Become Ocean.
"A haunting orchestral work that suggests a relentless tidal surge, evoking thoughts of melting polar ice and rising sea levels," writes the Pulitzer board about Adams' winning work.
Also nominated this year: Invisible Cities by 30-year-old Brooklyn composer Christopher Cerrone.
Based on Italo Calvino's classic surrealist novel, Cerrone's opera received its complete, fully-staged world premiere in a site-specific production in Los Angeles' Union Station by Yuval Sharon's company The Industry.
To celebrate Adams' win, listen to Seattle Symphony's music director Ludovic Morlot discuss Become Ocean (and maybe have a stab at John's Classicalite Wordoku-A).
