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Sacrum Profanum 2023

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 have 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, theater, 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 2009 and his recent opera, The Perfect American about the death of Walt Disney premiered at the Teatro Real, Madrid in 2013 with additional performances by the English National Opera. His Symphony #9 was completed in 2011 and was premiered by the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Austria in 2012 and his Symphony #10 received its European premiere in France that same year. Glass’ most recent opera Spuren de Verirrten, ‘The Lost’, premiered at the Landestheater Linz, Austria in 2013. In August of 2011, Glass launched the inaugural season of The Days And Nights Festival, a multi-disciplinary arts festival in Carmel/Big Sur, California.


Photo: Pasquale Salerno, Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike