The Piano Music of 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 on the Beach, 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, premièred 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 premièred with the Landestheater Linz, Austria in September 2009 and his opera, The Perfect American about the death of Walt Disney premièred at the Teatro Real on January 22, Madrid in 2013 and was performed by the English National Opera in June 2013. His Symphony No.9 was completed in 2011 and was premièred by the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Austria on January 1, 2012 and his Symphony No.10 received its European première in France in August. Glass’ most recent opera Spuren de Verirrten, ‘The Lost’, premièred at the Landestheater Linz, Austria on April 13, 2013.