The New York Times called John Adams “our greatest living composer,” and now his son Samuel is also producing works of enormous originality and depth of expression. This concert showcases both generations in three exhilarating pieces.

Drawn to the creation of large-scale works characterized by, in his words, “broad brushstrokes on big canvasses,” John Adams faced a challenge when commissioned to write a piece for the San Francisco Chamber Players. He found his inspiration in Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 and music for the 1950s cartoons his son was watching in another room.  That little boy watching cartoons eventually became a formidable composer in his own right. Samuel Adams’s Lighthouse follows on the heels of First Work, which was enthusiastically received at its world premiere last summer in Aspen. John Adams’s 1978 string septet, Shaker Loops, takes us on a wild and thrilling musical adventure. The title refers to the composer’s childhood fascination with a New Hampshire Shaker community and to the early “tape loop” pieces of composers such as Steve Reich.

Get ready for a sonic spectacular as the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble plays works by John and Samuel Adams!