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Koyaanisqatsi Comes to NYPhil
Celebrating the Philip Glass Score
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Composer Philip Glass will be turning 75 in January, but he is celebrating early.
Glass and his Philip Glass Ensemble will have their debut performances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Nov. 2 and 3 in Avery Fisher Hall as part of his on-going birthday celebration.
The performances will feature the score Glass wrote for the independent film Koyaanisqatsi, which will be projected simultaneously on a screen above the stage. This will be the first time the Philharmonic performs Glass’ music.
According to his website, Glass considers himself a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” He attended Julliard and the University of Chicago in addition to studying with classical composer Darius Milhaud in Aspen before moving to Europe. There, he studied with French composer, teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger and worked with Indian composer and sitarist Ravi Shankar.
In 1967, Glass returned to New York and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble. The group consists of seven musicians who play keyboards and a variety of woodwinds. These instruments are amplified and fed through a mixer.
When he is not performing with the Ensemble, Glass continues to lecture, perform solos on the keyboard and lead workshops around the world.
Glass has composed eight symphonies, concertos for instruments including piano and violin, and more than 40 film soundtracks and 20 operas. He also has collaborated with fellow musicians including Woody Allen, Yo-Yo Ma and David Bowie.
Koyaanisqatsi was directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio from 1975 to 1982. The movie has been described as an “apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds – urban life and technology versus the environment.” Koyaanisqatsi, which is a Hopi Indian word for “life out of balance,” is the first of the QATSI film trilogy.
The film “consists primarily of slow-motion and time lapse footage of landscapes and cityscapes across the U.S.,” says Mark Travis, host of the New York Philharmonic “On the Music” podcast. “It contains no dialogue nor any sort of spoken narration. Instead the flow, tone and environmental message of the film are set by the juxtaposition of images and music.”
The November performances will also be the debut of Michael Reisman as conductor.
In an “On the Music” interview, Reisman said Koyaanisqatsi is “the original music video, full-length feature with images that tell the story and no lyrics.” He also said he describes the Philip Glass Ensemble as being “rock n’ roll with no drums, guitars or lyrics that will basically blow you out of your seat.”
The Collegiate Chorale, directed by James Bagwell, will also perform.
For more ticket information, visit: here