Philip Glass

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and The Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, he 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, Philip 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 which he collaborated with Robert Wilson.

Since Einstein, Philip has expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theatre, chamber ensemble, orchestra and film. His film scores have received Academy Award nominations for Kundun, The Hours and Notes on a Scandal and a Golden Globe for The Truman Show. His memoir Words Without Music was published by Liveright Books in 2015.

Philip received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, US National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018 and GRAMMY Trustee’s Award in 2020. His recent works include opera Circus Days and Nights, Symphony No. 14 and Prelude pour Orgue, written for the reopening of the Notre-Dame de Paris in Paris, France.