Composers
Philip Glass
© Jim Ball
Born: 1937
Brief Biography: Philip Glass, early protagonist of the Minimalist movement, studied with Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. His first job, assisting Ravi Shankar on a film soundtrack, heralded the start of his own successful cinema career, and to date he has scored over fifty movies. Early works tended to be abstract, but from the mid-1970s his attention shifted towards the stage. His first operatic triumph, Einstein on the Beach, did much to reinvigorate the international contemporary opera scene. Profoundly interested in traditional cultures, Glass often draws on Eastern traditions, as in Monsters of Grace (1997), a multimedia collaboration based on the writings of Rumi. For a complete biography, click here.
Key Works:
- Einstein on the Beach (1976; opera)
- Satyagraha (1980; opera)
- Koyaanisqatsi (1983; film score, performed live or recorded)
- Itaipu (1988; choir, orchestra)
- Symphony No. 5 ‘Requiem, Bardo, Nirmanakaya’ (1999; choir, orchestra)
- Cello Concerto (2001; cello, orchestra)
- Waiting for the Barbarians (2005; opera)
- Appotomattox (2007; opera)
- Kepler (2009; opera)
- Violin Concerto No 2 "American Four Seasons" (2009; violin, synthesizer, strings)
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Career Highlights:
- 1976 premiere of Einstein on the Beach
- 1983 multiple international awards for Koyaanisqatsi
- 1985 wins Cannes Special Jury Prize for score to Mishima
- 1999 Symphony No. 5 commissioned for the millennium by the Salzburg Festival
- 2002 score to The Hours receives BAFTA Award and nominations for Golden Globe, Grammy and Academy Awards
- 2007 Writes The Book of Longing based on the poetry and images of Leonard Cohen
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Critical Acclaim: Philip Glass must be one of the most influential living composers… — Christopher Monk, Musical Opinion Satyagraha is…Glass’s masterpiece, the work in which his musical style finds its most perfect and personal expression. — John Allison, The Sunday Telegraph The genius of this composer is his ability to purge the ears and the minds of their preconceptions, and to create the musical universe anew. — The Star-Ledger
Full Biography:
Philip Glass. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation. By 1974, Glass had a number of innovative projects, creating a large collection of new music for The Philip Glass Ensemble, and for the Mabou Mines Theater Company. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts, and the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach for which he collaborated with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein, Glass has expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theatre, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (Kundun, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 8—Glass’ latest symphonies—along with Waiting for the Barbarians, an opera based on the book by J.M. Coetzee, premiered in 2005. In the past few years several new works were unveiled, including Book of Longing (Luminato Festival) and an opera about the end of the Civil War entitled Appomattox (San Francisco Opera). Glass’ opera Kepler premiered with the Landestheater Linz, Austria in September 2009 and his opera, The Perfect American about the death of Walt Disney premiered at the Teatro Real on January 22, Madrid in 2013 and will be performed by the English National Opera in June 2013. His Symphony No 9 was completed in 2011 and was premiered by the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Austria on January 1, 2012 and his Symphony No 10 received its European premiere in France in August 2012. Glass’ most recent opera Spuren de Verirrten, ‘The Lost’, premiered at the Landestheater Linz, Austria on April 13, 2013.
External Websites
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