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Berlin, January 2017 – John Adams, Members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy

John Adams is introduced on his website as an “American composer and conductor and creative thinker. I love this description! We are so lucky to have him as our Composer in Residence this year at the Berlin Philharmonic. It has been great getting to know his music and having him with us in the Philharmonie – either conducting us himself or having him come to the rehearsals and the concerts and share his ideas for pieces we are playing for the first time. To receive the insight on a piece from a living composer is a very special thing.

John is such a fine and humble musician, it is a pleasure to work with him and he always manages to make us laugh. During the Harmonielehre rehearsals we weren’t getting the speed of the piece quite right and John, who was conducting, took all the blame saying “the conductor is not quite managing to get the tempo just how the composer wanted it…!”

John, it’s been great having you in Berlin, I love your music and your creative thinking!