Philip Glass Returns to MASS MoCA for Exclusive Live Performance
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. - Considered to be one of the most influential composers
ever to work in film, Philip Glass has reinvented the relationship between music and the moving image. Glass considers music an essential narrative force in film, and the works he has contributed to include Hollywood hits like Kundun and The Hours; important independent films like Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi and Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line and Fog of War; and shorts such as Anima Mundi, a breathtaking film of images from nature, and Evidence which depicts children under the influence of technology.Rather than simply providing music as accompaniment to an otherwise finished film, Glass prefers to work as a true collaborator with directors on feature films and shorts, conceptualizing the score from the initial stages of the film to the editing process. On Friday, January 16, at 8 PM in a unique intimate evening with the legendary composer, Philip Glass will perform, talk, and screen clips from his contributions to the big screen in a program created exclusively for MASS MoCA titled Philip on Film.
In conversation with Boston Phoenix film critic Jerry Peary, Glass will show clips from a variety of films; the featured clips will be a jumping-off point for what will be a remarkable evening of conversation, interspersed with bits of performance, delving into Glass' approach and experiences with scoring for films.
Of his own involvement in cinema, Glass notes, "My preoccupation with film has grown out of my appreciation of film as one of the two new art forms (jazz being the second) born in the 20th century. In its first 100 years, the world of film has created a new kind of literature, one that the world of live music, experimental theater, dance, and even opera can draw on -- just as in the past, historic novels, plays, and poems become the basis of new music and theater works. The strategy of combining a mechanically reproduced work, which is frozen in time, with live performance, which is not bound to time, gives a special quality of interpretation that is unique. This is what the work is about for me."
Glass has composed for film, opera, dance, stage, and hybrid works that defy categorization. Among his many awards are a Cannes jury prize for Mishima, a Golden Globe for his work on The Truman Show, and an Oscar nomination for Kundun. He was the first composer honored with a prestigious Medallion Award by the Telluride Film Festival.
Tickets for Philip on Film are $38 orchestra/ $34 mezzanine. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 AM until 5 PM, closed Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413-662-2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.
