Biography:
Born in Baltimore on January 31, 1937, Philip Glass discovered music in his father's radio repair shop. In addition to servicing radios, Ben Glass carried a line of records and, when certain ones sold poorly, he would take them home and play them for his three children, trying to discover why they didn't appeal to customers. These happened to be recordings of the great chamber works, and the future composer rapidly became familiar with Beethoven quartets, Schubert sonatas, Shostakovitch symphonies and other music then considered "offbeat". It was not until he was in his upper teens did Glass begin to encounter more "standard" classics.

Glass began the violin at six and became serious about music when he took up the flute at eight. But by the time he was 15, he had become frustrated with the limited flute repertoire as well as with musical life in post-war Baltimore. During his second year in high school, he applied for admission to the University of Chicago, passed and, with his parent's encouragement, moved to Chicago where he supported himself with part-time jobs waiting tables and loading airplanes at airports. During off-hours, he practiced piano and concentrated on such composers as Ives and Webern.

At 19, Glass graduated from the University of Chicago with a major in mathematics and philosophy. Determined to become a composer, he moved to New York and attended the Julliard School. By then he had abandoned the 12-tone techniques he had been using in Chicago and preferred American composers like Aaron Copland and William Schuman. By the time he was 23, Glass had studied with Vincent Persichetti, Darius Milhaud and William Bergsma. He had rejected serialism and preferred such maverick composers as Harry Partch, Charles Ives, Moondog, Henry Cowell and Virgil Thomson, but he still had not found his own voice. Still searching, he moved to Paris and spent two years of intensive study under Nadia Boulanger.

In Paris, he was hired by a film-maker to transcribe the Indian music of Ravi Shankar into notation readable to French musicians. In the process, he discovered the techniques of Indian music. After researching music in North Africa, India and the Himalayas, he returned to New York, renouncing his previous music, and began to apply eastern techniques to his own work.

By 1974, he had composed a large collection of new music, not only for use by the theater company Mabou Mines (Glass was one of the co-founders), but mainly for his own performing group, the Philip Glass Ensemble. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts, a three-hour summation of Glass' new music; and reached its apogee in 1976 with the Philip Glass / Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach, the 4-½ hour epic now seen as a landmark in 20th century music-theater.

In addition to Einstein, Glass has collaborated with Robert Wilson on several other projects including: the CIVIL warS - Act V (Rome Section) of the multi-composer epic was written for the 1984 Olympic Games, White Raven, an opera commissioned by Portugal to celebrate its history of discovery and premiered at EXPO '98 in Lisbon, and Monsters of Grace, a digital 3-D opera.

Glass has collaborated with a variety of artists in a range of media such as: Opera - Satyagraha, Akhnaten, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (libretto by Doris Lessing), The Fall of the House of Usher, Hydrogen Jukebox (libretto by Allen Ginsberg), and The Voyage (libretto by David Henry Hwang); Film - Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima, Powaqqatsi, The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time, Candyman, Dracula; Dance - A Descent into the Maelstrom and In the Upper Room (choreographed by Twyla Tharp); Theatre works - The Photographer, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (libretto by David Henry Hwang), The Mysteries and What's so Funny?, and Orphée, La Belle et La Bête and Les Enfants Terribles (a trilogy of musical theater pieces based on the films of Jean Cocteau); Cooperative recording projects - Songs from Liquid Days (Lyrics by David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Suzanne Vega), Passages (co-written with Ravi Shankar); Orchestral works - Itaipu (a large-scale work for chorus and orchestra), Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3, the "Low" and "Heroes" Symphonies (both based on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno), and Symphony No. 5 - Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya, (a large scale work for chorus, voice, and orchestra).

Albums:
1000 AIRPLANES ON THE ROOF, 1989 Virgin
AKHNATEN, 1987 Sony Masterworks
ANIMA MUNDI, 1993 Nonesuch
LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE, 1995 Nonesuch
ARTURO STALTERI - CIRCLES, 1998 Materiali Sonori
THE CIVIL WARS - ROME SECTION, 1999 Nonesuch
KRONOS QUARTET - COMPANY, 1986 Nonesuch
DANCE NOS. 1-5, 1988 Sony Masterworks
DANCEPIECES, 1987 Sony Masterworks
DRACULA, 1999 Nonesuch
EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, 1993 Nonesuch
ESSENTIAL PHILIP GLASS, 1993 Sony Masterworks
BRUCE BRUBAKER - GLASS CAGE, 2000 Arabesque Recordings
DONALD JOYCE - GLASS ORGAN WORKS, 1993 Catalyst
GLASSMASTERS, 1997 Sony Masterworks
GLASSWORKS, 1982 Sony Masterworks
"HEROES" SYMPHONY, 1997 Point Music
HYDROGEN JUKEBOX, 1993 Nonesuch
ITAIPU / THE CANYON, 1993 Sony Masterworks
KOYAANISQATSI, 1998 Nonesuch
KUNDUN, 1997 Nonesuch
"LOW" SYMPHONY, 1993 Point Music
JEROEN VAN VEEN - MINIMAL PIANO WORKS, 1999 Piano Productions
MISHIMA, 1985 Nonesuch
MUSIC IN TWELVE PARTS, 1996 Nonesuch
MUSIC WITH CHANGING PARTS, 1994 Nonesuch
NORTH STAR, 1977 Virgin
PASSAGES, 1990 Private Music
THE PHOTOGRAPHER, 1983 Sony Masterworks
JAY GOTTLIEB - PIANO MUSIC, 1999 Pianovox
ALECK KARIS - PIANO MUSIC OF PHILIP GLASS, 2000 Roméo Records
POWAQQATSI, 1988 Nonesuch
SATYAGRAHA, 1985 Sony Masterworks
THE SCREENS, 1992 Point Music
THE SECRET AGENT, 1996 Nonesuch
SOLO PIANO, 1989 Sony Masterworks
SONGS FROM LIQUID DAYS, 1986 Sony Masterworks
SONGS FROM THE TRILOGY, 1989 Sony Masterworks
KRONOS QUARTET - STRING QUARTETS 2-5, 1995 Nonesuch
T.E.C.C. QUARTET - STRING QUARTETS 4-5, 1996 Beoton
SYMPHONY NO. 2 / INTERLUDE FROM ORPHÉE / CONCERTO FOR SAXOPHONE QUARTET AND ORCHESTRA, 1998 Nonesuch
SYMPHONY NO. 3 / INTERLUDES FROM THE CIVIL WARS / MECHANICAL BALLET FROM THE VOYAGE / THE LIGHT, 2000 Nonesuch
SYMPHONY NO. 5 - REQUIEM, BARDO, NIRMANAKAYA, 2000 Nonesuch
THE THIN BLUE LINE, 1989 Nonesuch
THREE SONGS / SONGS FROM LIQUID DAYS / VESSELS, 2000 Silva Classics
THE TRUMAN SHOW, 1998 Milan Records
TWO PAGES / CONTRARY MOTION / MUSIC IN FIFTHS / MUSIC IN SIMILAR MOTION, 1994 Nonesuch
UAKTI - AGUAS DA AMAZONIA, 1999 Point Music
GIDON KREMER - VIOLIN CONCERTO, 1993 Deutsche Grammophon
ROBERT MCDUFFIE - VIOLIN CONCERTO, 1999 Telarc
ADELE ANTHONY - VIOLIN CONCERTO / PRELUDE AND DANCE FROM AKHNATEN / COMPANY, 2000 Naxos

Links:
Official Philip Glass Web Site

Philip Glass at ArtistDirect

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