Philip Glass

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Lore & Background

Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 31, 1937, the son of Ida and Benjamin Charles Glass. His family were Latvian-Jewish and Russian-Jewish emigrants. His father owned a record store and his mother was a librarian. Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, who often brought home promotional copies of new recordings. He studied the flute as a child at the Peabody Preparatory of the Peabody Institute of Music. At age 15, he entered an accelerated college program at the University of Chicago where he studied mathematics and philosophy. He later studied at the Juilliard School of Music, where his composition teachers included Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma, and fellow students included Steve Reich and Peter Schickele. In 1964, Glass received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger from autumn 1964 to summer 1966. There he encountered the films of Jean Cocteau and the French New Wave, and worked with Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha on the film score for *Chappaqua* (1966), which influenced his additive approach to rhythm. He founded the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1968. Glass has written 15 operas, 15 symphonies, 12 concertos, nine string quartets, and many film scores. His operas include *Einstein on the Beach* (1976), *Satyagraha* (1980), *Akhnaten* (1983), *The Voyage* (1992), and *The Perfect American* (2013).

Reader's Guide

Philip Glass's significance lies in his development of minimalist music through repetitive structures and shifting layers, a style he evolved over decades. His work spans opera, symphony, chamber music, and film scores. Notable film scores include *Koyaanisqatsi* (1982), *Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters* (1985), *Hamburger Hill* (1987), *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), *Candyman* (1992), *The Truman Show* (1998), and *The Illusionist* (2006). He received three Academy Award for Best Original Score nominations for *Kundun* (1997), *The Hours* (2002), and *Notes on a Scandal* (2006). He has received nominations for four Grammy Awards, including two for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for *Satyagraha* (1987) and String Quartet No. 2 (1988). He has won a BAFTA Award, a Drama Desk Award (for the music in the Broadway revival of *King Lear*, 2019), and a Golden Globe Award. His honors include 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.

Did You Know?

• Glass studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1964 to 1966 on a Fulbright Scholarship.
• He worked with Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha on the film score for *Chappaqua* (1966).
• Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1968.
• He has written 15 operas, 15 symphonies, 12 concertos, and nine string quartets.
• Glass won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for the 2019 Broadway revival of *King Lear*.

Compositional Philosophy and the Language of Repetition

Philip Glass has long defined his artistic identity through the lens of repetition. Rather than embracing the dense, atonal textures that dominated mid-century avant-garde circles, he built his musical language from recurring phrases and gradually shifting layers, a technique that earned him a close association with the minimalist movement. He himself preferred the more neutral description of crafting 'music with repetitive structures,' a phrasing that underscores his desire to evolve the style rather than simply repeat it. His roots in this approach trace back to formative encounters: at fifteen, he absorbed the serialism of Anton Webern at the University of Chicago, and later, under Nadia Boulanger in Paris, he found enduring inspiration in Bach and Mozart. Schubert, with whom Glass shares a birthday, remains his stated favorite composer. These influences coexisted with a deliberate distance from the discipleship culture surrounding figures like Boulez and Stockhausen, allowing Glass to forge a path that honored tradition while embracing accessibility and rhythmic drive.

A Baltimore Childhood Shaped by Records and Resilience

Born in Baltimore on January 31, 1937, into a family of Latvian-Jewish and Russian-Jewish emigrants, Philip Glass grew up surrounded by music in the most literal sense. His father, Benjamin Charles Glass, ran a record store that became Baltimore's go-to destination for modern classical music, and his mother, Ida, worked as a librarian. After World War II, his mother opened their home to Holocaust survivors arriving in America, helping them learn English and find employment—a humanitarian impulse that his sister Sheppie later carried forward through her work with the International Rescue Committee. Young Philip spent countless hours in his father's armchair, listening to promotional recordings of Hindemith, Bartók, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, and Beethoven. He built a personal collection from the store's unsold inventory. His early musical training began on the flute at the Peabody Preparatory, and by fifteen he was studying mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago, where he encountered Webern's serialism and composed his first twelve-tone work.

A Career Spanning Opera, Symphony, and the Silver Screen

Few twentieth-century composers have matched the sheer breadth of Glass's output. Since founding the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1968, he has composed fifteen operas—including landmark works such as Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten, The Voyage, and The Perfect American—alongside numerous chamber operas and musical theatre pieces. His orchestral catalog includes fifteen symphonies, twelve concertos, and nine string quartets. Beyond the concert hall, Glass has written scores for a remarkable range of films, from Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and Koyaanisqatsi to Scorsese's Kundun, The Truman Show, and The Illusionist. He also brought his musical voice to Broadway, scoring revivals of The Elephant Man, The Crucible, and King Lear, the last earning him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play. This extraordinary range—moving fluidly between the opera house, the symphony hall, the cinema, and the stage—has cemented his reputation as one of the most versatile and influential composers of his era.

Honors, Nominations, and a Lasting Legacy

Glass's contributions have been recognized across virtually every major award circuit in the arts. He has received four Grammy nominations, including two for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Satyagraha and String Quartet No. 2, and three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score for his work on Kundun, The Hours, and Notes on a Scandal. His honors extend to a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy nomination, and a Drama Desk Award. These distinctions, spanning more than three decades, reflect a career that has consistently bridged the boundaries between classical concert music, opera, film, and theatre—securing his place as one of the most widely recognized and influential American composers of the late twentieth century.

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