Nonesuch wishes John Adams a very happy birthday today. He'll be in town this weekend for the New York premiere of his Doctor Atomic Symphony at Carnegie Hall on Saturday. The work is based on orchestral music from Adams's 2005 opera Doctor Atomic, which depicts the final hours leading to the detonation of the first atomic bomb. The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, led by David Robertson, will perform the piece; the ensemble gave the North American premiere last week in St. Louis. 

When the band that would become Punch Brothers premiered Chris Thile's long-form piece The Blind Leaving the Blind in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall for last year's In Your Ear festival curated by John Adams, it brought a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd. As Time Out New York's Steve Smith writes in his five-star review of the band's Nonesuch debut, Punch, that event was further proof that Thile is a composer unlike most others. The "exuberance and effortless virtuosity" found in Chris's earlier work with Nickel Creek, writes Smith, are on full display in his Punch Brothers band mates, who all share Thile's "fluent chops and wide-ranging interests."