Though Adams adopted minimalism against the popular academic grain, it does not fully define his work, according to Yannatos.

“I think in terms of his musical language, he has investigated quite a bit, and moved out from his minimalism into a much broader music that is both technically expert and emotionally cogent,” Yannatos says.

America the Musical

Adams first rose to fame with his 1987 opera Nixon in China, based on Richard Nixon’s 1972 meeting with Mao Tse Tung. It was created in cooperation with librettist Peter M. Sellars ’80 and choreographer Mark Morris, both recent speakers at Harvard.

The trio collaborated again on the 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer, which touches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some critics, however, called Klinghoffer anti-Semitic.

But politics remains, for Adams, primarily an element of the contemporary American landscape, which has been a constant source of inspiration.

Adams could not be reached for comment, but he told The New Yorker two years ago that he defines culture as “the symbols that we share to understand each other.”

“When we communicate, we point to symbols that we have in common,” he said.

And in an article in The San Francisco Chronicle last year, Adams noted, “I take on important matters in my work, not just classical stories about Oedipus. I feel a great artist should look at the mythology right now. 9/11 is already a human myth.”

With Adams’ devotion to current mythology, Carnegie Hall provides an ideal setting for the composer.

In Carnegie Hall’s upcoming season alone, the gamut of modern music’s luminaries—from Caetano Veloso and Pierre Boulez to Emmylou Harris, John Cage and Johann Sebastian Bach—will be celebrated in the same space as Adams.

“He’s etched out a very positive position in American music,” Yannatos says. “Politically, he’s in a very enviable position. I’m sure there will be a lot of composers that are jealous as hell.”