В юности увлекался рок-музыкой, через Фрэнка Заппу открыл для себя Эдгара Вареза, затем — Джона Кейджа, а ещё позднее — Мортона Фелдмана. Окончил Калифорнийскую художественную школу. В 1975 году, работая в обществах по охране окружающей среды, приехал на Аляску, ставшую для него затем постоянным источником творчества[1].
Характеристика творчества
Пережив и усвоив опыт минимализма, сосредоточившись на проблеме статического в музыке, Джон Лютер Адамс развивает медитативный музыкальный язык, связанный с музыкальным воплощением места, «звуковой географией» необжитых пространств, близких к территориям воображения и потому наполненных высоким смыслом, близким к сакральному.
Сочинения
Green Corn Dance (1974) for percussion ensemble
Night Peace (1976) for antiphonal choirs, solo soprano, harp, and percussion songbirdsongs (1974-80) for 2 piccolos and 3 percussion
Strange Birds Passing (1983) for flute choir up into the silence (1978/84) (poem by E.E.Cummings) for voice and piano
How the Sun Came to the Forest (1984) (poem by John Haines) for chorus and alto flute, English horn, percussion, harp, and strings
The Far Country of Sleep (1988) for orchestra, in the memory of the late Morton Feldman
Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter, Coyote Builds North America (1986-90) for theater magic song for one who wishes to live and the dead who climb up to the sky (1990) for voice and piano
Dream in White On White (1992) for orchestra
Earth and the Great Weather (1990-93) for theater, libretto published in the book "Inukshuk" edited by ARBOS - Company for Music & Theater, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85266-126-9
Five Yup’ik Dances (1991-94) for solo harp
Crow and Weasel (1993-94) (story by Barry Lopez) for theater
Sauyatugvik: The Time of Drumming (1995) for orchestra
Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (1991-95) for orchestra
Five Athabascan Dances (1992/96) for harp and percussion
Strange and Sacred Noise (1991-97) for percussion quartet
Make Prayers to the Raven (1996/98) flute, violin, harp, cello, and percussion
In the White Silence (1998) for orchestra
Qilyaun (1998) for four bass drums
Time Undisturbed (1999) for japaneses instruments
In a Treeless Place, Only Snow (1999) for celesta, harp, 2 vibraphones, and string quartet
The Light That Fills the World (1999—2000) for orchestra
Among Red Mountains (2001) for solo piano
The Immeasurable Space of Tones (1998—2001) for violin, vibraphone, piano, sustaining keyboard, contrabass instrument
The Farthest Place (2001) for violin, vibraphone, marimba, piano, double bass
After the Light (2001) for alto flute, vibraphone, harp
Dark Wind (2001) for bass clarinet, vibraphone, marimba, piano
Red Arc / Blue Veil (2002) for piano, mallet percussion and processed sounds
The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies (2002) for solo percussion and processed sounds
Poem of the Forgotten (2004) (poem by John Haines) for voice and piano
For Lou Harrison (2004, premiere 2005) for string quartet, string orchestra, and 2 pianos