Philip Glass's 80th Birthday Season Begins in January

One of America's most esteemed composers, Philip Glass, celebrates his 80th birthday this January, a milestone that will be marked by a year of notable performances and events encompassing every facet of his career-opera, chamber music, orchestra music, dance, theatre works and more. Highlights follow, with additional events and honors to be announced throughout the season.

"PHILIP GLASS AT 80" AT THE BARBICAN, LONDON

The Barbican in London celebrates Glass's 80th Birthday January 27-29 with "Philip Glass at 80," a long weekend of programs that includes the Royal Ballet performing Les Enfants Terribles, Glass's dance opera for ensemble, soloists and dancers with choreography and direction by Javier de Frutos; a BBC Symphony Orchestra Philip Glass Total Immersion Day featuring the U.K. premiere of Glass's Concerto for Two Pianos with Katia and Marielle Labèque and his monumental symphonic portrait, Itaipú, in a program conducted by Marin Alsop; performances by the BBC Singers and musicians from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama; and a screening of Godfrey Reggio's 2013 film VISITORS, the fourth collaboration between Glass and Reggio (following the legendary Qatsi trilogy), in which Glass's original score will be performed live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Riesman.

SYMPHONY NO. 11 WORLD PREMIERE ON THE COMPOSER'S BIRTHDAY, CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK

On his 80th birthday, January 31, Glass's Symphony No. 11 will receive its world premiere at Carnegie Hall as part of an all-Glass program performed by the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, led by Music Director Dennis Russell Davies. The evening will also include the New York premiere of Ifé: Three Yorùbá Songs, Glass's collaboration with Angelique Kidjo, as well as his Days and Nights in Rocinha.

"GLASS AT 80" AT CAROLINA PERFORMING ARTS, UNC CHAPEL HILL,
NORTH CAROLINA

February 1-10 Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill presents "Glass at 80," a celebration of Glass's work and its impact on music and intellectual life through performances featuring some of his most important collaborators. Programming includes Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in a program featuring Glass's Days and Nights in Rocinha along with his new Symphony No. 11 and Violin Concerto No. 1, which will be performed by Grammy-nominated violinist Robert McDuffie; Heroes Tribute: A Celebration of the Music of Philip Glass, David Bowie and Brian Eno with the UNC Symphony Orchestra and a host of Merge Records artists and collaborators including singer/songwriter Dan Bejar of Destroyer and Superchunk frontman and Merge co-founder Mac McCaughan; Glass's Complete Piano Etudes performed by Glass himself and nine other remarkable pianists including longtime collaborators and contemporary music specialists; Lucinda Childs Dance Company presenting the rarely performed DANCE, a seminal collaboration between Glass, Childs and visual artist Sol LeWitt; Kronos Quartet performing Glass's Draculascore, conducted by Michael Reisman, alongside a screening of the Universal Pictures 1931 classic starring Bela Lugosi; and Glass and Laurie Anderson performing a special evening of music and poetry entitled Words and Music in Two Parts.

"PHILIP @ 80" AT NATIONAL SAWDUST, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

Throughout 2017 National Sawdust in Brooklyn will present a series of programs under the banner "Philip @ 80" which will include The Complete Piano Etudes with Maki Namekawa on February 24(co-presented with Orange Mountain Music); Bridging the Gap-works by Paola Prestini, John Zorn and Philip Glass performed by Jeffrey Zeigler with students from the Yale School of Music on March 5; and an evening with Glass and Foday Musa Suso on March 12 (co-presented with World Music Institute). Additional programming to be announced.

TIBET HOUSE U.S. BENEFIT CONCERT AT CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK

The 2017 edition of the annual Tibet House Benefit Concert takes place March 16 at Carnegie Hall and will be dedicated to the celebration of Glass's 80th birthday and his long association with the organization and its acclaimed yearly event. Details to be announced.

ABOUT PHILIP GLASS

After more than five decades, Philip Glass continues to be at the forefront of contemporary music and art. 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 he was creating a large collection of new music for The Philip Glass Ensemble and for the Mabou Mines Theater Company (which he co-founded). This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts and the landmark opera Einstein on the Beach, on which he collaborated with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein, Glass has expanded his repertoire to include music for 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). Several new works have been unveiled in recent years, including two operas in 2013 (The Lost, for the opening of the new opera house in Linz Austria, and The Perfect American, about the death of Walt Disney). Glass's newest opera, based on Kafka's The Trial, premiered at London's Covent Garden in October 2014 and in 2015 the Washington National Opera premiered a newly revised version of his 2007 work, Appomattox, on which he collaborated with librettist Christopher Hampton. Ifé: Three Yoruba Songs, written with his friend and collaborator Angelique Kidjo, was premiered by the Philharmonique de Luxembourg in January 2014; and in 2015 the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, premiered his latest concerto, a piece written for pianists Marielle and Katia Labèque. Glass's memoir, Words Without Music, was released to great acclaim via Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, and last year he was named the eleventh recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize, a lifetime achievement award given to prominent musicians.

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