John Adams begins two weeks' of events on the US East Coast with a concert in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall tonight. He leads Ensemble ACJW, comprised of participants in the Carnegie/Juilliard program The Academy, in a program featuring his Son of Chamber Symphony, Stravinsky's Concert for Piano and Winds, and Louis Andriessen's De Staat. It is the final event curated by Andriessen as holder of Carnegie's Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for 2009–2010. Fittingly, Adams is a previous holder of the Debs chair, and Brad Mehldau will hold it next season, the first jazz artist to do so. Elliott Carter held the chair last season.

New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini, writing in yesterday's Sunday Times, calls it an "enticing program." Andriessen, he writes, "remains one of the most inventive composers of our time" and is using the Debs Chair residency "to have some fun." Tommasini describes De Staat as both "exhilarating" and "engrossing."

You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of John Adams, whom Tommasini calls "another free spirit," rehearsing the piece with Ensemble ACJW on Adams' brand-new Facebook page.

For more on tonight's concert, visit carnegiehall.org.

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Also this week, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, launches John Adams: Perspectives, a two-week celebration of the composer's music, featuring several concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra with Adams conducting, post-concert discussions, a film screening, and book signings of his 2008 memoir, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life. In addition, Adams will read from the book in a free event in the Whittall Pavilion of the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building this Friday afternoon, followed by a question-and-answer session.

The proceedings began last night with a performance by violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Thomas Sauer of Adams's Road Movies. The first program with Adams at the helm comes this Thursday with The Wound-Dresser, his 1989 piece inspired by the Walt Whitman poem. The New York Times has called it “a triumphant, near-perfectly proportioned work of art.” For John Adams: Perspectives, bass-baritone Eric Owens joins the NSO and the composer for performances of the piece this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in The Kennedy Center's Concert Hall. Also on the program are works by Barber and Elgar, plus Copland's Suite from Billy the Kid. Following Thursday's performance, Adams, Owens, and NSO Director of Artistic Planning Nigel Boon will participate in a discussion of the program. Adams will sign copies of Hallelujah Junction after the Friday and Saturday concerts.

This Saturday, May 15, The Kennedy Center will be presenting a free screening of the 2000 film John Adams: A Portrait, which combines concert footage of Adams' first opera, Nixon in China; his 2000 oratorio, El Niño; and excerpts from the film adaptation of his 1990 opera, The Death of Klinghoffer; along with interviews and commentary from director Peter Sellars, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and Adams himself.

Adams begins the following week leading the Conservatory Project Chamber Ensemble in a free performance of his Chamber Symphony on The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Monday, May 17, at 6 PM. The composer will also lead members of the NSO in a performance of his Shaker Loops for the event. The free show will be simultaneously webcast at kennedy-center.org.

Later that week, Adams returns to the Concert Hall for a program that includes two of his works, 2003's The Dharma at Big Sur, featuring violinist Leila Josefowicz, and his Doctor Atomic Symphony (2007), Thursday, May 20, through Saturday, May 22. Also on the program are works by Britten and Stravinsky. The May 20 event includes a free post-concert discussion with Adams, Josefowicz, and NSO's Nigel Boon. Adams will sign copies of Hallelujah Junction after the final performance.

For tickets and information on all of the events in The Kennedy Center's John Adams: Perspectives, visit kennedy-center.org.