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• Philip Glass is a minimalist composer and pianist. Glass distances himself from the term "minimalist," preferring to refer to his compositions as "music with repetitive structures." Glass has created operas, symphonies, film scores, concertos and music for solo piano. He has collaborated across disciplines with choreographers like Twyla Tharp, poets like Allen Ginsberg, filmmakers like Errol Morris and pop musicians like David Bowie.

  Glass studied composition at the University of Chicago, Juilliard School of Music and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. His education continued in Europe with Nadia Boulanger. In 1967, he moved to New York and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble to perform his original compositions.

  Since that time, Glass' collaborations with director Robert Wilson on opera's like Einstein on the Beach and scores for films like The Hours, Kundun and Koyaanisqatsi have made him a well-known and much lauded performer, composer and speaker. He has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe Award for his work on The Truman Show. In 2008, he signed on to pen an opera about Walt Disney for the New York Opera company. The opera will open the 2009 season.

  In addition to his compositional work, Glass is an advocate for the Tibetan independence and is the co-founder of the Tibet House, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibet's cultural heritage.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: January 31, 1937
  2. Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
  3. Currently resides in New York and Nova Scotia
  4. Touring group: Philip Glass Ensemble
  5. First cousin removed of Ira Glass, host of This American Life

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