Dominique Plaisant – soprano, Tara Hugo – mezzo soprano, Will Erat – tenor, Daniel Keeling – bass baritone Tim Fain – violin, Philip Glass – keyboard instruments, Megan Marolf – oboe, cor anglais Gail Kruvand – double bass, Mick Rossi – keyboard and percussion instruments, Andrew Sterman – flute, piccolo, saxophone and bass clarinet, Wendy Sutter – cello Keyboard instruments and conductor: Michael Riesman Philip Glass was thirty years old in 1967 when on his return from studies in Europe and India he formed the Philip Glass Ensemble in New York. His compositions with their repetitive structures led public opinion to associate them with the contemporary “minimalist” trend. Glass was never enthusiastic for this term and did his best to escape it as soon as he could. From the seventies he completed dozens of operas, symphonies, theatre and cinema scores which were not only popular but commercially successful and in sales could often compete with the albums of pop stars (Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Koyaanisqatsi, Kundum, to name just some of the better known). Nothing characterises Glass’s musical open mind better than his willingness to collaborate with members of the world and light music communities such as Ravi Shankar, Foday Musa Suso, Brian Eno, David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega and the Aphex Twin. His latest work is Book of Longing. Premièred in 2007, it is based on Leonard Cohen’s volume of verses and drawings of the same name, which he made while living in a Zen Buddhist monastery during the nineties. The work features verses that are variously meditative, erotic, playful and provocative and is performed by four singers and an eight member band with Glass himself on keyboards. It also features Cohen’s unique voice and the spectacle we customarily expect from Glass’s operas.

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