In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1937
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- Country
- United States
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Opera, ensemble and film music
Why this life matters
His music developed through a performing ensemble and collaborations that crossed opera, dance, concert music and cinema.
Timeline
Key moments
Return to New York
Developed work in the downtown arts community.
An opera premiere
Einstein on the Beach at Avignon.
A later recording
Another edition of the opera.
Opera honour
NEA Opera Honoree.
An education beyond one musical language
Philip Glass was born in Baltimore in 1937. His family’s record store exposed him to different kinds of music. Studies at the University of Chicago and Juilliard were followed by work in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and collaboration with Ravi Shankar.
After returning to New York in 1967, he developed music for an amplified ensemble of keyboards and winds. Repeated structures became a resource for extended musical change. Glass has preferred that description of his practice to treating minimalism as a complete account of it.
Building an opera with images
Einstein on the Beach, created with Robert Wilson, premiered at Avignon on 25 July 1976. It was an opera without a conventional biographical plot, even though the figure of Einstein supplied a shared reference.
Glass’s original recording notes describe work from Wilson’s drawings and an agreed plan of acts, scenes and connecting knee plays. The solo violinist was both a musical presence and a stage figure. The project’s authorship therefore involved an organisation of space, duration and bodies as well as notes.
The work spreads across media
Satyagraha, Akhnaten and other operas extended his stage career. Collaboration with Godfrey Reggio on Koyaanisqatsi brought the ensemble into a different relation with moving images. Film scores also included Kundun and The Hours.
Glass wrote concert music and worked with artists including Allen Ginsberg, David Bowie and Doris Lessing. A repeating musical figure could serve very different purposes in an opera, a film or a chamber work; the shared surface does not make the projects interchangeable.
Sources for this section: [1]
A collaborative sound and a changing record
Glass supported his composing through other work, including plumbing and driving a taxi, before establishing a broad performing and recording life. The NEA recognised his operatic work in 2010.
A 1993 recording of Einstein on the Beach names Michael Riesman as conductor and Wilson for design and direction. Its track list and contributors document that edition, while the earlier composition and stage premiere have their own dates. A long career is easier to follow when those separate records remain visible.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Philip Glass
- Is Einstein on the Beach a conventional biography of Einstein?
- No. Glass’s work catalogue describes a non-narrative opera, created with Robert Wilson.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Steve Reich
Compare another ensemble-based compositional career.
- Aaron Copland
Explore a different American composer who also studied with Nadia Boulanger.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Philip Glass official sitePhilip Glass biography
This biography uses selected written records. Films, performances, scores and archival folders were not viewed or read in full.
- 2. National Endowment for the ArtsPhilip Glass: 2010 NEA Opera Honoree
- 3. Philip Glass work catalogueEinstein on the Beach
- 4. Philip Glass, 1976 notes, reproduced on official siteEinstein on the Beach: original recording notes
- 5. Philip Glass official discography, 1993 album essayEinstein on the Beach: 1993 recording notes
