Composer John Adams, whose work has both told the stories of our time and shaped the history of music, is poised to make history once again as his new orchestral piece, City Noir, receives its world premiere tonight by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, in L.A.'s Walt Disney Concert Hall. The new piece, commissioned by the Philharmonic and inspired by its city of origin, joins Mahler's First Symphony on the program for the L.A. Philharmonic's Opening Night Concert and the Inaugural Gala for Dudamel. It's a fitting pairing of firsts for conductor and composer, as Adams also marks his position as the philharmonic's new creative chair. The special event will be simulcast on screens set up across the street from Disney Hall, at the Music Center Plaza, a first for the orchestra, and will be broadcast in HD on PBS from WNET/Thirteen's Great Performances beginning October 21, at 8 PM EST. (For more information, visit pbs.org.) To listen to a clip from the piece, visit John Adams's website, earbox.com.

The Los Angeles Times, in a profile of the city's new conductor phenom, described Adams as the man "who literally wrote the book on how to manage a classical music career," referencing his recent memoir Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life. For a separate piece, the Times's Diane Haithman caught up with the composer earlier this week as tonight's premiere loomed, and he was working with Dudamel and the Philharmonic to put the finishing touches on the new piece.

"I'm making some small changes," Adams tells the Times, "what I call 'battlefield triage' things."

Though a new commission may present logistical challenges, with its inevitable deadlines and likely last-minute fine-tuning, Adams says the inherent hurdles are also one of its rewards. Rather than rest on his considerable musical laurels, Adams insists, "I want to make my music an opportunity to extend myself, and my language." Read more at latimes.com.

It's a position Adams has been in before with the Philharmonic. As Haithman recalls, the orchestra unveiled his piece The Dharma at Big Sur in 2003 for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall. On the 2006 Nonesuch recording of that piece, it is paired with My Father Knew Charles Ives, an apt meeting of two works the composer calls "musical autobiography," evoking his East Coast past in the latter and West Coast present in the former.

This very present West Coast experience serves as an organizing principle around the festival he is curating for the LA Philharmonic November 21 through December 8 called West Coast, Left Coast. Adams describes it as "a celebration of music that is, in a sense, native born, arising from the curious and unique nature of the California sensibility."

In fact, as part of the festival, Adams will conduct the Philharmonic and violinist Leila Josefowicz in two performances of The Dharma at Big Sur, December 5 and 6. And the festival will offer three additional opportunities to hear Dudamel lead City Noir, November 27–29.

Also featured in West Coast, Left Coast are four performance by the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet, which serves as the festival's ensemble-in-residence. A week before the other festival concerts follow, Kronos joins Terry Riley and other California artists for Eureka!, the festival's Opening Event, on November 21. On December 1, Kronos and Adams come together as the composer leads the LA Philharmonic New Music Group for a program of works by Ingram Marshall, Harry Partch, and Frank Zappa. And on December 3 and 4, Kronos shares a bill with the full orchestra under conductor Leonard Slatkin for a program that includes a new work by Thomas Newman.

Berkeley-born saxophonist Joshua Redman joins in on the festivities as well for A Night of the Beats, a celebration of the Beat Generation's poems and jazz, featuring a new take on Jack Kerouac’s "Blues & Haikus.”

For the complete schedule for performances of City Noir and the West Coast, Left Coast festival, visit laphil.com. For performances by Nonesuch artists, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.