John Adams is an American composer and conductor who was born in 1947. He writes for large orchestra with driving rhythm and bright brass, and he has written operas about events from modern history. He is among the most performed living American composers. The best first piece for a child is “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” which lasts four minutes.
Quick facts
- Born: 1947, in Worcester, Massachusetts
- Lives: in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California
- Era: Contemporary
- Plays: clarinet, and he conducts
- Known for: “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” Harmonielehre, The Chairman Dances, and the operas Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic
Which John Adams?
He is not the John Adams who was the second president of the United States. He is also not John Luther Adams, another living American composer, who writes music about wild places.
The life in short
Adams grew up in New England. His father taught him the clarinet. He played in marching bands and community orchestras, and he began to compose at ten. An orchestra played his first pieces while he was a teenager.
He studied at Harvard University. In 1971, he moved across the country to California, and he has lived near San Francisco ever since.
He taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for ten years. Then the San Francisco Symphony made him its composer in residence. Two large pieces from those years, Harmonium and Harmonielehre, made his name.
In 1987, his first opera, Nixon in China, opened in Houston. It is about a real event, the American president’s visit to China in 1972. Opera houses around the world have staged it since.
He went on to write operas about the first atomic bomb test and the California Gold Rush, among others.
In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for a piece in memory of the people who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
He has held a creative post with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, and he conducts orchestras around the world.
What the music sounds like
Adams started from the repeating patterns of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. He added big tunes, rich chords, and the full power of a symphony orchestra.
His fast music has a motor under it, often a pulse on a woodblock or in the trumpets. His slow music is warm and wide.
Pieces to play first
“Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” A woodblock ticks from the first second to the last. The rest of the orchestra piles on patterns in other rhythms. A blazing fanfare for the brass ends it.
The Chairman Dances. Adams calls it a foxtrot for orchestra. It chugs along on a steady beat and then breaks into a sweeping dance tune. It lasts about 12 minutes.
Lollapalooza. Six minutes. The trombones and tubas play the rhythm of the word “lollapalooza” again and again.
“Shaking and Trembling,” from Shaker Loops. The string players shake their bows in fast, tiny strokes. The sound flickers and grows.
Harmonielehre, the opening. It begins with huge, pounding chords. Adams has said the idea came from a dream, in which a giant oil tanker rose out of San Francisco Bay and took off into the sky.
Things to do together
Be the woodblock. Tap a steady beat on a table for all four minutes of “Short Ride in a Fast Machine.” Do not let the orchestra pull you off the beat.
Say the word. Chant “lol-la-pa-LOO-za” in rhythm. Then play the piece and find the instruments that say it.
Draw the ride. Draw the fast machine. Is it a car, a rocket, or a roller coaster?
Shake. Play “Shaking and Trembling.” Wiggle your fingers when the strings shake. Hold still when they hold a note.
News opera. Nixon in China turned a news story into an opera. Pick a real event from this year and make up a song about it.
Print and play
Fill in a composer study notebook page for Adams. For the instruments that end “Short Ride,” read brass instruments for kids. For the two composers he started from, read Steve Reich for kids and Philip Glass for kids. For more composers at work now, read living composers kids can hear today.
For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.
Sources
Checked in November 2026.
- Berliner Festspiele. (n.d.). John Adams.
- Opera America. (n.d.). John Coolidge Adams.
- Staatsballett Berlin. (n.d.). John Adams.
- Wise Music Classical. (2026). John Adams.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.