David Wallace Adams

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony offer the world-premiere recording of John Adams’ "Absolute Jest", commissioned by the orchestra, alongside the composer’s "Grand Pianola Music", another SFS commission from 30 years earlier, conducted here by the composer.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony offer the world-premiere recording of John Adams’ "Absolute Jest", commissioned by the orchestra, alongside the composer’s "Grand Pianola Music", another SFS commission from 30 years earlier, conducted here by the composer.

General Richard Henry Pratt, best known as the founder and longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, profoundly shaped Indian education and federal Indian policy at the turn of the twentieth century. Pratt’s long and active military career included eight years of service as an army field officer on the western frontier. During that time he participated in some of the signal conflicts with Indians of the southern plains, including the Washita campaign of 1868-1869 and the Red River War of 1874-1875.