Adam Nagourney is Culture’s Classical Music and Dance Correspondent

I am excited to announce that Adam Nagourney will be the Culture desk's new classical music and dance correspondent.

This role is a return engagement for Adam, who a few years ago served as Culture's West Coast correspondent, chronicling the difficulties George Lucas ran into as he tried to build a new museum in Los Angeles and the pain many Angelenos felt when Gustavo Dudamel announced that he would leave to lead the New York Philharmonic. In recent months, he has also written multimedia features like a look at the new $17 million organ at Trinity Church that allows readers to listen to its 8,041 pipes.

Adam is one of the newsroom's most versatile, curious and experienced reporters. He will work with Rachel Saltz, the classical music and dance editor. "In his short time filling in as the classical and dance reporter, Adam has already proved himself indispensable, not just as a writer doing top-quality work in all formats, but also as an engaged and enthusiastic colleague," she said. "Adam is a mensch."

Adam joined The Times in 1996 after a role at USA Today, covering national and then New York politics. In 2002, he was named national political reporter and held that role through 2010, before becoming Los Angeles bureau chief for nearly a decade. He is also the author of the definitive history "The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn and the Transformation of Journalism," which was published in September 2023.

Adam was raised in Westchester County, N.Y., and, growing up, he studied piano and clarinet but says he was not very good at either. At college, he worked for the school newspaper, and from the time he was a freshman, he was telling people he wanted to become the national political reporter for The New York Times.

"A past executive editor liked to say that one of the great things about working at The New York Times is that you can keep reinventing your career: Washington, international, sports, food," Adam said. "So you really should never get bored or stale here. I have tried to do that over the years, from New York to Washington to Los Angeles, and I am delighted to start this new chapter writing for Culture during a time of struggle and transformation for the performing arts here and around the world."

Adam will divide his time between New York and Los Angeles. Please join me in congratulating him on his new role.

- Sia