John Luther Adams (b. 1953), studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts where he first became involved in environmental concerns, at that time, the plight of the condor which was nearing extinction. He went to Alaska in 1975 to help in the campaign for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and stayed on as an environmentalist for several years. But he returned to composing works inspired by nature, Alaska, and its "vastness, separateness, and solitude." (Alex Ross*) Adams stayed in Alaska for 40 years, but for the past several has lived between New York and Mexico. He received a commission for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, directed by Ludovic Morlot, and in 2013 finished Become Ocean. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2014, and the Grammy for the Best Contemporary Composition in 2015. Adams wrote of this piece "My hope is that the music creates a strange, beautiful, overwhelming - sometimes even frightening - landscape, and invites you to get lost in it." 

*Ross, Alex. "Song of the Earth." The New Yorker (May 12, 2008)