Today we celebrate the birthday anniversaries of two notable baby boomers.

The first is the American composer John Adams, born on this date in 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts. After studies at Harvard, Adams moved to California in 1971, and taught at the San Francisco Conservatory.

In 1978 he became new music advisor to the San Francisco Symphony, and with music director Edo de Waart, created the Symphony's “New and Unusual Music” series. Around that same time, Adams began producing some “new and unusual music” of his own, like this orchestral piece, entitled “The Chairman Dances,” arranged from his landmark 1987 opera “Nixon in China.”

Our second birthday anniversary today is that of the American composer Christopher Rouse, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949. After studies at Oberlin and Cornell, Rouse taught at Eastman, where, alongside courses on theory and composition, he also offered students his scholarly spin on the history of rock ‘n’ roll. Rouse’s interest in rock was quite genuine, and, in 1988, he even wrote a piece for eight percussionists entitled “Bonham”—a tribute to the Led Zeppelin drummer of that name.

On a more introspective note, the following year the St. Paul Chamber orchestra premiered this music by Rouse, entitled “Iscariot,” which quotes a Bach chorale. John Adams conducted that SPCO premiere, and it was to Adams that Rouse dedicated the score “in friendship and admiration.”