Seattle Symphony premieres John Luther Adams work

Alaska composer John Luther Adams ― not to be confused with “Nixon in China” composer John Adams ― has staged outdoor-percussion extravaganzas (“Inuksuit”), created sound-and-light installations triggered by atmospheric phenomena (“The Place Where You Go to Listen” at Fairbanks’ Museum of the North) and blended electronics with live instruments (“The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies”).

But he doesn’t often get a chance to work with a full-scale orchestra. That’s why he is as thrilled about the Seattle Symphony’s world premiere of his new piece, “Become Ocean,” as his fans will be.

“I love the orchestra,” he explained in a recent email exchange from Mexico, where he’s working on a large-scale outdoor piece. “I’d probably compose for it all the time if I could. But orchestra commissions don’t come along every day ... especially for a work of this scale! This is by far the most exciting orchestral opportunity I’ve ever received.”

The piece has a predecessor in “Dark Waves” (2007), a rumble-pulse of orchestral sound and electronics that gradually builds and then subsides over the course of 12 minutes. “Become Ocean,” at 45 minutes, will offer an even vaster soundscape.

“From the beginning,” Adams says, “my friends at the symphony were asking for a large-scale work.”

While Adams admired the work of symphony music director Ludovic Morlot, he had never collaborated with him.

“When we sat down together for the first time,” Adams recalls, “I suggested two possibilities ― a new indoor work modeled after ‘Inuksuit,’ or something that I described as ‘”Dark Waves“ on steroids.’ Ludovic was intrigued by both options. To my surprise, he opted for the latter. This wasn’t the obvious choice. But I’m convinced it was the right one.”

Adams’ grounding as an orchestral composer comes from hands-on experience: for a decade, he was timpanist and principal percussionist for the Fairbanks Symphony and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra.

Symphony-goers had a taste of Adams’ sound world in April, when excerpts from “songbirdsongs,” an early work for piccolos and percussion, came at them from all directions in the Grand Lobby of Benaroya Hall. The performance served notice that Adams is an “environmental composer” in two different senses. He draws musical inspiration from the sounds in his environment. But he also creates surround-sound musical environments that envelop the listener.

(MCT Information Services)