The Seattle Symphony performance at McCurdy Pavilion on June 17th features world premieres from composers Philip Glass and Samuel Jones. (Tickets available online.)
Academy Award winner Philip Glass composed Harmonium Mountain to accompany the Clifford Ross film of the same name. The groundbreaking animated film presents an imaginary landscape of colorful, animated elements derived entirely from one high-resolution photographic image of Colorado’s Mount Sopris, the latest step in Ross’ exploration of objective reality and subjective experience.
“I’m very pleased to provide music for Gerard’s Farewell Season in Seattle. I’ve known him as a fine conductor and a good collaborator. The piece Harmonium Mountain was inspired by a short video work and now exists in an orchestral form produced especially for this event.” – Phillip 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 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, on which he collaborated with Robert Wilson.
Since writing 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).
In the past few years, he has premiered several new works, including Book of Longing (Luminato Festival) and Appomattox (San Francisco Opera). The English National Opera, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera, performed Glass’ Satyagraha in London in April 2007, and the Metropolitan Opera presented the work in April 2008. Glass’ latest opera, Kepler, premiered with the Landestheater in Linz, Austria, in September 2009.
He is currently working on an opera about Walt Disney that will premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2013.