Adès, Thomas

(born March 1, 1971, London, Eng.) British composer. Trained as a pianist at the Guildhall School, he later attended King's College, Cambridge. Initial recognition came for his virtuoso piano playing, but he started to write music in 1990 (Five Eliot Landscapes) and was instantly acclaimed as a major composer for his inventiveness and remarkably assured technique. His controversial opera Powder Her Face (1995), about a 20th-century divorce scandal, attracted international attention, as did his large symphonic work Asyla (1997).

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