Philip Glass

Glass's work for this production was described by The New York Times as "icy, repetitive music that comes closest to piercing the heart". Read Less

Violin Concerto No. 2 in four movements was commissioned by violinist Robert McDuffie, and subtitled "The American Four Seasons" (2009), as an homage to Vivaldi's set of concertos "Le quattro stagioni". It premiered in December 2009 by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and was subsequently performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2010. The Double Concerto for Violin and Cello and Orchestra (2010) was composed for soloists Maria Bachmann and Wendy Sutter and also as a ballet score for the Nederlands Dans Theater. Other orchestral projects of 2010 are short orchestral scores for films; to a multimedia presentation based on the novel Icarus at the Edge of Time by theoretical physicist Brian Greene, which premiered on June 6, 2010, and the score for the Brazilian film Nosso Lar (released in Brazil on September 3, 2010). Read Less

Along with the Philip Glass Ensemble, scheduled performers include Molissa Fenley and Dancers, John Moran with Saori Tsukada, as well as a screening of Dracula with Glass's score. Glass hopes to present this festival annually, with a focus on art, science, and conservation.

Glass's recently completed and projected works include Symphony No.9 (2010–2011), Symphony No.10 (2012), Cello Concerto No.2 (2012, based on the film score to Naqoyqatsi), String Quartet No.6, and the operas The Lost (2011–2012) and The Perfect American (2011). Glass's Ninth Symphony was co-commissioned by the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the American Composers Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The symphony's first performance took place on January 1, 2012 at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria (Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Bruckner Orchester Linz); the American premiere was on January 31, 2012 (Glass's 75th birthday), at Carnegie Hall (Dennis Russell Davies conducting the American Composers Orchestra), and the West Coast premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of John Adams on April 5. Glass's tenth Symphony was commissioned by the Orchestre français des jeunes for its 30th anniversary. The symphony's first performance takes place on August 9, 2012 at the Grand Theâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France under (Dennis Russell Davies). The Lost is based on a play by Austrian playwright and novelist Peter Handke, Die Spuren der Verirrten (2006). Read Less

And as the composer states: "Unfortunately, there's always a good time to do this opera. It's just the way it is. But never has it been so close at hand My position is that this is free speech and free assembly. And what these people do by acting in this way, they bring back to us the importance of our basic freedoms."

Aside from composing in the Western classical tradition, his music has ties to rock, ambient music, electronic music, and world music. Early admirers of his minimalism include musicians Brian Eno and David Bowie. In the 1990s, Glass composed the aforementioned symphonies Low (1992) and Heroes (1996), thematically derived from the Bowie-Eno collaboration albums Low and "Heroes" (composed in late 1970s Berlin).

Glass has collaborated with recording artists such as Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen, David Byrne, Uakti, Natalie Merchant, and Aphex Twin (yielding an orchestration of Icct Hedral in 1995 on the Donkey Rhubarb EP). Glass's compositional influence extends to musicians such as Mike Oldfield (who included parts from Glass's North Star in Platinum), and bands such as Tangerine Dream and Talking Heads. Glass and his sound designer Kurt Munkacsi produced the American post-punk/new wave band Polyrock (1978 to the mid-1980s), as well as the recording of John Moran's The Manson Family (An Opera) in 1991, which featured punk legend Iggy Pop, and a second (unreleased) recording of Moran's work featuring poet Allen Ginsberg. Read Less