(Coolidge), prominent American composer; b. Worcester, Mass., Feb. 15, 1947. Adams was raised in Vermont and New Hampshire. His father taught him clarinet, and he later took lessons with Felix Viscuglia, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He then entered Harvard College (B.A., 1969; M.A., 1971), where his principal teachers were DAVID DEL TREDICI and ROGER SESSIONS. Adams conducted the Bach Society Orchestra and was a substitute clarinetist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Opera Company. In 1969 he played the solo part in WALTER PISTON'S Clarinet Concerto at Carnegie Hall in N.Y.

In 1971 Adams moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a composer and conductor. He was head of the composition department at the San Francisco Conservatory from 1971 to 1981, and in 1978 he became new music advisor to the San Francisco Symphony. From 1981 to 1985 he was also its composer-in-residence. In 1982 he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. From 1988 to 1990 he held the title of creative advisor to the St. Paul (Minnesota) Chamber Orchestra.

In his compositions Adams is a MINIMALIST, using spare harmonies and simple melodies and repeating short melodic MOTIVES. He is best known for his topical opera Nixon in China (1987), which brought him international attention. Several of its movements, e.g., The Chairman Dances, have become popular concert pieces. He followed it with another opera based on contemporary history, The Death of Klinghofer (1991). In 1995 he received the Grawemeyer Award of the University of Louisville for his Violin Concerto (1993).