Phillip Glass has long been a force to be reckoned with in the pantheon of classic modern music. Two other musical epics in the trilogy also became joint creations of Glass and Regio. Phillip Glass gave all his life to music, since the first day he felt the vocation.
His composer's biography starts on January 31, 1931 in Chicago, when he was engaged in mathematics and philosophy at Chicago University. There he studied in the Julliard musical school in Paris. Phillip Glass is the author of numerous pieces of music for the orchestra. One of the most significant and certainly critical events in the creative resume of the composer became the creation together with Robert Wilson of the opera "Einstein on a beach " which was mastered in the studio on November 21, 1976. After that he put together an ensemble, consisting of seven people and proceeded to go on tour worldwide.
As a young man, Phillip Glass started to compose original music for film sound tracts and was under the management of Ornate Coleman, when Ravi Shankar asked Phillip Glass for his help. Glass' eclectic talents and skills led to the collaboration and creation of some unprecedented orchestrations. That was the start of composer's filmography. Since then Shankar and Glass frequently compose and occasionally tour together.
In the middle of the 1960's years, Philip Glass traveled across Northern Africa and Asia. Having returned in 1967 to New York, he got acquainted with Alla Rakh, the famous Indian producer and writer. In 1968, Glass formed another group, capable of executing his own music. He did not remain in this world of pure sound for a long time.
In 1975, not being tied down to an exclusive contract, Glass collaborated with Robert Wilson on the first of three operas, "Einstein on the Beach". This was his first work produced in Europe, and the opera reached Broadway shortly after on November 21, 1976. It was a huge success. Glass then signed a contract with CBS records and released another successful disk. After "Einstein's" the success, Phillip Glass started to receive all kinds of offers. For the Netherlands he produced the opera "Sat`agraha" -- an original story about the early years of Mahatma Gandhi, and "Ehnathon", an opera produced specifically for the Stuttgart opera theatre.
Since then, Phillip Glass has received requests to produce music for films, theatrical productions, and ballets (in particular, New York City Ballet under the direction of well-known Jerome Robins). Together with his touring ensemble, Glass's composer's biography includes concerts in some of the largest halls in the world, including Paris, Tokyo, and Toronto.
The Philadelphia Symphonic Orchestra summer festival on which the music of Richard Wagner and Phillip Glass were executed was another of Glasses accomplishments. Glass also collaborates with one of the recognized leaders of rock-poetry; David Byrne from Talking Heads. Together with sound designer Kurt Munkachi; Glass tries to use all studio resources and opportunities to create new technology for his music.
Most part of Glass's music has been composed for a stage and for films. Except for the mentioned operas, it's also necessary to mention in his composer's filmography the sound tracks to Godfri Regio`s films "Koyaanisquatsi" and "Powaqqatsi".