John Adams The Dharma at Big Sur

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California is at the forefront in a program conducted by Ryan Bancroft. In his concerto for electric violin, The Dharma at Big Sur, John Adams honors two West Coast composers whom Adams calls friends and inspirations, Lou Harrison and Terry Riley. Video by acclaimed artist Deborah O’Grady brings together visions of California’s mystical landscapes with Adams’s hypnotic work. Gabriella Smith, a passionate environmentalist, was moved to compose her orchestral piece Tumblebird Contrails while backpacking in Point Reyes. The piece imagines “the ecstasy of wind in the wings—jet trails painting never-ending streaks across the sky.” The program concludes with Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, which declares, “Music is life, and like it inextinguishable.” Image by Deborah O’ Grady