John Adams will receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School at the conservatory's 106th Commencement Ceremony. Adams will also deliver this year's commencement address at the ceremony, which will be held at Alice Tully Hally in New York City on Friday, May 20, 2011, at 11 AM.

Also receiving honorary doctoral degrees from Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi are pianist and producer Herbie Hancock, actor Derek Jacobi, and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Juilliard will award 273 degrees—111 undergraduate and 162 graduate—to its actors, dancers, playwrights, and jazz, operatic, and classical instrumental musicians.

For more information, visit juilliard.edu.

John Adams’s latest Nonesuch album, Son of Chamber Symphony / String Quartet, is due out on May 31 and is now available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store. On the album are Adams's 2007 Son of Chamber Symphony, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), led by the composer, and his 2008 String Quartet, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the ensemble for which the piece was written. This is the first recording of both works. To reserve a copy, head to the Nonesuch Store now.

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Adams led the New World Symphony in concert at the New World Center in Miami over the weekend. "The celebrated composer John Adams did it all on Saturday," wrote the Miami Herald's David Fleshler. "He led the New World Symphony in a high-energy performance of Bartók’s Dance Suite. He served as the gracious on-stage host for the American composer Julia Wolfe. And he led the orchestra in the Florida premiere of his own atmospheric City Noir, a tribute to Los Angeles as seen through dark period crime dramas." Read the complete concert review at miamiherald.com.