The Juilliard School in New York is nearing the end of its 2009 FOCUS! Festival, “California: A Century of New Music,” which surveys the California scene and is designed to show how ideas from the West Coast have traveled throughout contemporary music. Five concerts and an opera will showcase the work of composers John Adams, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Robert Erickson, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Roger Reynolds, and Morton Subotnick, as well as young composers Pamela Z, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Mason Bates. There will be the world premiere of a string quartet by John Adams, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Adams’s 1990 opera The Death of Klinghoffer will be performed in concert on January 31, led by the composer. All performances are free (tickets required) and take place at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, at the Juilliard School. The festival, conducted by founder Joel Sachs, is in its 25th year.
Photo of John Adams by Margaretta Mitchell
