John Adams's music will be front and center at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's seventh-annual New Creations Festival, which kicks off tonight with TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian conducting Adams's Harmonielehre and Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and includes the composer's TSO debut later this week.

Prior to the festival's official launch, Adams hosts a free noon-time concert at the Four Seasons Centre's Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre today, featuring selections from all four of his operas, from his first, Nixon in China, to his latest, A Flowering Tree, as well as The Death of Klinghoffer and Dr. Atomic. This follows the Canadian Opera Company's production of Nixon in China, which concluded last week.

John Adams makes his TSO debut when he conducts the orchestra in the Canadian premiere of his City Noir, a TSO co-commission, at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday night, March 5.

The following Thursday, March 10, the festival concludes with a performance of Adams's Tromba Lontana. Also on that program is the Canadian premiere of Jennifer Higdon's On a Wire by eighth blackbird and the world premiere of R. Murray Schafer's First Symphony.

The TSO's Oundjian launched the first New Creations Festival in 2005 to celebrate new works from contemporary composers. In the spirit of the festival, each concert includes pre-concert performances, intermission composer chats and post-concert audience-wide parties featuring local new music performers.

For more information on the New Creations Festival, visit tso.ca.

Tomorrow night, John Adams will give the annual Herman Geiger-Torel Lecture at the University of Toronto. Adams's lecture, titled The Vinteuil Sonata, will be preceded by a short presentation of his chamber music organized by Soundstreams Canada. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on this and other upcoming appearances by John Adams, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

To peruse the complete John Adams Nonesuch catalog, head to the Nonesuch Store now.