Philip Glass

Philip Glass
Glass in 1993
Glass in 1993
Background information
Born (1937-01-31) January 31, 1937 (age 87)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Genres
OccupationComposer
DiscographyList of compositions
Years active1964–present
Member ofPhilip Glass Ensemble
Websitephilipglass.com

Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century.[1][2][3][4] Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers.[5][6] Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures",[7] which he has helped to evolve stylistically.[8][9]

He founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, which is still in existence, but Glass no longer performs with the ensemble. He has written 15 operas, numerous chamber operas and musical theatre works, 14 symphonies, 12 concertos, nine string quartets, various other chamber music pieces, and many film scores. He has received nominations for four Grammy Awards for including two for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Satyagraha (1987) and String Quartet No. 2 (1988). He has received three Academy Award for Best Original Score nominations for Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997), Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002), and Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal (2006). He also composed the scores for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Hamburger Hill (1987), The Thin Blue Line (1988), The Truman Show (1998), and The Illusionist (2006).

Glass is known for composing several operas such as Einstein on the Beach (1976), Satyagraha (1980), Akhnaten (1983), The Voyage (1992), and The Perfect American (2013). He also wrote the scores for Broadway productions such as the revivals of The Elephant Man (2002), The Crucible (2016), and King Lear (2019). For the later he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play.

Over his career Glass has received several awards including a BAFTA Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. He has also received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1995, the National Medal of Arts in 2010, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018, and the Grammy Trustees Award in 2020.

  1. ^ "Naxos Classical Music Spotlight podcast: Philip Glass Heroes Symphony". Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  2. ^ "The Most Influential People in Classical and Dance", New York, May 8, 2006, retrieved November 10, 2008
  3. ^ O'Mahony, John (November 24, 2001), "The Guardian Profile: Philip Glass", The Guardian, London, retrieved November 10, 2008
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia (2000), "Glass, Philip," Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., p. 659. There, Glass is described as "today perhaps the world's most famous living composer."
  5. ^ SPIN Media LLC (May 1985). SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. pp. 55–. ISSN 0886-3032.
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia (2000), "Glass, Philip," Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., p. 659. There, Glass is described as "today perhaps the world's most famous living composer."
  7. ^ Biography, PhilipGlass.com, archived from the original on August 4, 2013, retrieved November 10, 2008, The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed "minimalism". Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry.
  8. ^ Smith, Ethan (January 18, 1999), "Is Glass Half Empty?", New York, retrieved November 10, 2008
  9. ^ Smith, Steve (September 23, 2007), "If Grant Had Been Singing at Appomattox", The New York Times