gifted American composer; b. Meridian, Miss., Jan. 23, 1953. He was influenced by the experimental practices of FRANK ZAPPA, EDGARD VARÈSE, MORTON FELDMAN, HENRY COWELL, and ANTON WEBERN. After studies with Leonard Stein and James Tenney at the California Institute for the Arts in Valencia, he moved to Alaska in 1975, where he played timpani in the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1992.

Adams is also a devoted environmentalist and outdoorsman, and many of his works evoke the placid beauty of the Alaskan terrain. Among his most notable compositions are Dream in White on White for string quartet, harp, and string orchestra, in "white note" tonality (1992); Earth and the Great Weather (1993), a plotless opera that includes recorded sounds from nature and a recitation of Eskimo place-names; and Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing for orchestra (1990-95).