Thomas Adès

Biography

Thomas Adès was born in London, the son of art historian Dawn Adès and poet Timothy Adès, with a surname of Syrian Jewish origin. He is gay and, as a young man, closely associated his sexuality with that of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His musical training began with piano lessons from Paul Berkowitz, followed by composition studies with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After attending University College School, he earned a double starred first from King’s College, Cambridge in 1992, where he studied under Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway.

He later became the Britten Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex in 2004. In 2007, the Barbican Arts Centre hosted a retrospective festival of his work, “Traced Overhead: The Musical World of Thomas Adès,” which featured the UK premiere of Tevot, a piece for Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. That same year, his opera The Tempest returned to the Royal Opera House.

Adès was also the focus of Radio France’s “Présences” festival and Helsinki’s “Musica Nova” festival in 2007. In 2009, the Stockholm Concert Hall centred its annual Composer Festival on him, and the following year he was named a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

He joined the Board of Directors of the European Academy of Music Theatre in 2015. In 2022, he received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera, and in 2023 his composition Növények won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Chamber Ensemble Composition. In September 2024, Simon Rattle presented him with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal at the BBC Proms.

Compositions

Asyla, for orchestra, commissioned for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) by the John Feeney Charitable Trust, was premiered in Symphony Hall, Birmingham in October 1997 by Simon Rattle and the CBSO. It received its London premiere at the BBC Proms on 15 August 1999 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. This work received the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2000, making Adès the youngest ever to receive the award.

On 7 September 2002, Simon Rattle gave his first concert as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Asyla and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5, both of which have also been released on CD and DVD by EMI. America: A Prophecy was commissioned for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's Millennium Messages in November 1999 and received its UK premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2000. Concentric Paths, Adès's violin concerto, received its premiere in September 2005 with a performance by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Anthony Marwood as soloist.

Tevot, for orchestra, was premiered in Berlin by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic on 21 February 2007, and received its American premiere as part of the Berlin in Lights Festival at Carnegie Hall. In Seven Days, for piano, orchestra, with video installation, was premiered by the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Adès at Royal Festival Hall in London on 28 April 2008. Video segment was created by Tal Rosner, Adès's then partner. Polaris, for orchestra and five video screens (moving images by Tal Rosner), was written for the opening of Frank Gehry's New World Arts Center in Miami, Florida, and premiered by the New World Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas on 26 January 2011.

Musical director

Totentanz, for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and large orchestra, commissioned by Robin Boyle and dedicated to Witold Lutosławski and his wife Danuta, was premiered on 7 July 2013 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of that year's BBC Proms. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, for piano and large orchestra, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered by the BSO and the pianist Kirill Gerstein in Symphony Hall, Boston, on 7 March 2019. The Exterminating Angel Symphony, a four movement orchestral rendering of music from the opera, premiered on 4 August 2021 at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Air – Homage to Sibelius, for violin and orchestra, commissioned by Roche for the Lucerne Festival and premiered on 27 August 2022 at the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Adès. The work received its UK premiere on 30 May 2024 when it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Adès himself. Powder Her Face, Adès's 1995 chamber opera with a libretto by Philip Hensher, won both good reviews and notoriety for its musical depiction of fellatio.

The opera was commissioned by Almeida Opera Festival, London. The Duchess depicted in the opera is Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll. The Tempest, with a libretto by Meredith Oakes adapted from Shakespeare's play, was premiered to critical acclaim at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden London in February 2004. Its US premiere was by the Santa Fe Opera in July 2006.

EMI's recording of the Covent Garden performance of The Tempest won Adès the title of Composer of the Year in the 2010 Classical BRIT Awards. The Metropolitan Opera, New York, included The Tempest in its 2012–13 season, conducted by Adès and produced by Robert Lepage. The Exterminating Angel, adapted from Luis Buñuel's 1962 surrealist film El ángel exterminador, was premiered at the 2016 Salzburg Festival, and performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, New York and Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, the four co-commissioners and co-producers of the opera.

Biography

The Fayrfax Carol, an a cappella choral composition, was written originally for King's College, Cambridge, 1997. Five Eliot Landscapes is Adès's first opus, published in 1990. Arcadiana, a seven-movement, 20-minute string quartet (Op. 12), was recorded in 1998. Cardiac Arrest, a work for chamber ensemble of 7 players, is based on a song by Madness.

It received its premiere at Meltdown, Purcell Room, London in 1995 by Composers Ensemble. Catch, a chamber work for clarinet, piano, violin and violincello, premiered in 1993 at St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol by Lynsey Marsh, Anthony Marwood, Louise Hopkins and Thomas Adès. Chamber Symphony, a work for 15 players, lasts approximately 13 minutes.

Other musical activities

Thomas Adès first performed a public piano recital in London at age 22 in 1993, part of the Park Lane Group series. Two years earlier, he had been a runner-up in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. EMI released a solo album, "Thomas Adès: Piano," and several recordings where he accompanies artists like Ian Bostridge and Steven Isserlis. During his student years, Adès played percussion in Stravinsky's "Les noces" under Sir Simon Rattle.

He became the first music director of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group from 1998 to 2000, then served as artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1999 to 2008. In 2000, he was composer-in-residence at California's Ojai Festival, where the program included the U.S. West Coast premiere of his piece Asyla, conducted by Rattle with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He later held a residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 2005/6 and 2006/7 seasons.

Adès has been the Deborah and Philip Edmundson artistic partner with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for three seasons, from 2018/2019 through 2020/2021, a role created specifically for him.

Recordings

Powder Her Face was made into a film by Channel 4 and shown on Christmas Day 1999 in the UK; it was released on DVD in the UK for Christmas 2005, including a documentary about Adès by Gerald Fox. Asyla, along with Mahler's 5th Symphony, formed Simon Rattle's opening concert as Music Director with the Berlin Philharmonic; the concerts were recorded and released as a DVD in 2002. The Metropolitan Opera production of The Tempest from 2012, conducted by Adès, was issued on DG and won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Audio CDs as composer include Life Story (1997), Living Toys (1998), Asyla (1999), Powder Her Face (1999), America (2004), Adès/Schubert: Piano Quintets (2005), Violin Concerto (2007, download), The Tempest (2009), Tevot, Violin Concerto, Three Studies from Couperin, Dances from Powder Her Face (2010), Thomas Adès: Anthology (2011), In Seven Days (Signum Classics, 2011), Polaris (2012, download), Lieux retrouvés (Hyperion, 2012), and Thomas Adès Dante (Nonesuch, 2023).

As performer, he appears on Cello World (with Steven Isserlis, 1998), Thomas Adès: Piano (2000), Janáček: The Diary of One Who Disappeared (with Ian Bostridge, 2002), The Music of Poul Ruders vol. 4 (2004), and Stravinsky: Complete Music for Violin and Piano (Hyperion, 2010).