John Adams will lead the Yale Philharmonia in a concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City on Sunday, October 19. The program opens with Stravinsky’s Orpheus, followed by Adams’s Beethoven-inspired piece Absolute Jest (also featuring the Brentano String Quartet in its debut year as Yale’s quartet-in-residence), and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major. The artists will also perform the program at Yale University's Woolsey Hall on Friday, October 17. 

John Adams’s 1995 "songplay" I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky receives its long-overdue LA premiere in a Long Beach Opera performance at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday. The piece, with a libretto by the late poet June Jordan, uses the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake as a starting point to explore race, gender, and immigration issues among young Angelenos. Nonesuch Records released the recording of Ceiling/Sky in 1998, featuring Audra McDonald, among others.

John Adams's new recording of City Noir and his Saxophone Concerto features "superb" performances by the St. Louis Symphony led by David Robertson and "first-class soloist" saxophonist Timothy McAllister, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. McAllister's "performance, well-supported by Robertson, is amazing." The Post-Dispatch concludes that "both pieces get terrific performances; the recording itself got top-notch engineering." McAllister and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra give the West Coast Premiere of the Saxophone Concerto at the Cabrillo Music Festival on Saturday, August 9. 

In conjunction with Nonesuch Records at BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's series of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of Nonesuch Records, BAMcinématek presents Nonesuch Records on Film, a salute to the label’s rich catalogue of movie soundtracks with a series featuring some of the most memorable film scores of the last 50 years from Leonard Rosenman, Alex North, Toru Takemitsu, Georges Delerue, and more. Special guest appearances include Philip Glass with a screening of Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and John Adams with Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love.

John Adams's new album featuring City Noir and his Saxophone Concerto performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by Music Director David Robertson with saxophonist Timothy McAllister, earns a perfect five stars from the BBC Music Magazine, for both performance and recording. "David Robertson and his St Louis orchestra do a sleek and beautifully layered job," says the magazine. New Music Box says: "These are vital, engaging performances by all involved."

John Adams's new album, City Noir, which comprises the title piece and the debut recording of his Saxophone Concerto, has been named among NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of 2014 (So Far). "Soloist Timothy McAllister is simply outstanding," says NPR Music's Anastasia Tsioulcas. "Meanwhile, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Robertson are born naturals for this music, turning in fresh, dynamic and invigorating performances."

The cancellation of The Metropolitan Opera’s worldwide HD broadcast of The Death of Klinghoffer has been widely reported in the press over the last several days. The Death of Klinghoffer has been met with controversy since its premiere in 1991, but the work has endured and received many new productions since then. The New York Times reports that the decision was made after discussions between The Metropolitan Opera and the Anti-Defamation League. Adams responded to the cancellation a day later, also in the Times, and today both the paper's chief classical music critic, Anthony Tommasini, and Editorial Board explain why they believe the Met's decision was a mistake.

John Adams's Saxophone Concerto, as heard on a new album with the title piece, City Noir, "is a gleaming vehicle for virtuoso saxophonist Timothy McAllister," says NPR's Thomas Huizenga. "He nails the fluent angularity and punchiness in the music with a lyrical touch somewhere comfortably between jazz and classical styles ... You can hear the influence of swing music, and the more frenetic pacing of great bebop sax men like Charlie Parker, over Adams' pulsating orchestra." McAllister gives the West Coast premiere of the piece at the Cabrillo Festival in August.

The new album of John Adams's City Noir and Saxophone Concerto is out now, performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by David Robertson, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister. "Dense, brash and exuberant," raves the New York Times, "these two stellar works by John Adams are love letters to the confidence of the 1950s and a time when some of the greatest feats of virtuosity were often performed in smoky jazz clubs." It's "an incisive performance," says the Times; "McAllister sizzles." The Times of London gives the album four stars, calling the concerto "fun from start to finish."

The new album with John Adams's City Noir (2009) and the debut recording of his 2012 Saxophone Concerto is out now in North America, with an international release to follow May 19. Both pieces are performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by David Robertson, featuring saxophonist Timothy McAllister. City Noir, inspired by Los Angeles "noir" films of the 1940s and '50s, "is riveting," says the New York Times. Adams composed his Saxophone Concerto for McAllister, whom he calls "a fearless musician and risk taker," after McAllister's performance of the sax solo part in City Noir.

Nonesuch Records releases City Noir—comprising the title piece by composer John Adams and the debut recording of his Saxophone Concerto—on May 6, 2014. Both pieces are performed by the St. Louis Symphony led by Music Director David Robertson. Saxophonist Timothy McAllister is featured on both pieces. The City Noir album is available to pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

John Adams has teamed up with Toronto Symphony Orchestra Music Director Peter Oundjian for the tenth-annual New Creations Festival, running Saturday, March 1, through Friday, March 7. Following his TSO debut in the 2011 New Creations Festival, Adams returns with his music as a focus in the 2014 Festival, with Oundjian leading the TSO in his Doctor Atomic Symphony and the composer leading the orchestra in the Canadian premieres of his Slonimsky’s Earbox and Absolute Jest.