In 1976, the New York premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s “Einstein on the Beach” captivated audiences, polarized critics and put both artists on the map of contemporary performance art. In four-and-a half hours, its famously reductive score, enigmatic text and limpid, tensile choreography (by Lucinda Childs) teases out the meaning of the time/space continuum.

In 1976, Philip Glass was an unknown composer — almost pushing 40, and driving a taxi to make ends meet — when he got his break: a new work performed at New York’s echt-prestigious Metropolitan Opera House. Einstein on the Beach was directed by Robert Wilson, a key figure ...

Bonus Track: Kurt’s extended conversation with Philip Glass

This live 1984 recording of Glass's Einstein is nothing close to complete. However, it's a (smartly) edited 77-minute highlight reel from the opera, paired with a DVD of the documentary produced during the same run.

Director-designer Robert Wilson occupies an almost unparalleled role in the creative life and collaborative breakthroughs of Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach, the CIVIL warS). As part of our Philip Glass festival, Music of Constant Change, Wilson presented Q2 Music with a copy of his 2011 ink-on-paper with plastic gel portrait of the composer. 

"Happy 75th Birthday Philip! You've made me a better pianist, a more perceptive musician and let the world hear itself better." It's not idle praise.

In this episode of Soundcheck from 2002, the composer discusses some of the odd jobs he has held throughout his career,  the development of the new music scene in New York, and how he defined success for himself along the way.

Philip likes to say that I was “just a chick-let” when I first began touring with the Glass Ensemble. I was pretty much just out of college, and my couch-surfing lifestyle was evidence that I had not yet figured out how I would make a living, nor even exactly what I considered myself to be – a composer? A singer? Something else entirely? In retrospect, these uncertainties seemed to cause little anxiety for me – I was waiting for life to show me what was next.

I first heard Philip Glass in 1971 at one of his rehearsals in a loft on the Lower East Side in New York City. I went with a few other artists and we lay on the floor while he and his band played Farfisa organs at mind-melting volumes. These rehearsals often lasted for several hours and it was possible to drift to many different mental places. One of the regulars at the rehearsal was the sculptor Sol Lewitt, who said, “I do my best work at Phil’s rehearsals.”

My first encounter with Philip’s music was as a boy, sneaking into the TV room late one night and sitting down with my parents to watch a documentary on the making of Einstein on the Beach.

Today’s archival interviews from 2007 and 2008 feature two appearances on The Leonard Lopate Show, and cover a wide range of topics from working with choreographers to the release of the Glass Box retrospective.

On this episode of Meet the Composer from 1985, Glass talks about his days as a student, and the process of breaking the mold to develop a personal sound.

What would Philip Glass need to survive in complete isolation? Find out on this episode of Survival Kit from 2003. The composer opens up about what recordings he would bring along, including some unexpected selections.

The music of Philip Glass will always be inextricably linked with our very understanding of how to be a string quartet. Early on in our history as Brooklyn Rider, we decided to learn his String Quartet No. 3, which is an adaptation of his score for "A Life in Four Chapters," the brooding 1985 Paul Schrader film about the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima. Despite the relative simplicity of the score's veneer, we quickly discovered a rich inner life to the music and learned much about ourselves in the process.

I met Phil in 1964 in Paris where he was studying with Nadia Boulanger and I was on a Fulbright grant to Vienna. We reunited in 1967 through the sculptor Richard Serra when we were both helping him make his early lead prop sculptures. Phil was working as a plumber and actually plumbed my first two lofts in what was to become SoHo.

From a 1978 New, Old and Unexpected with guest Philip Glass, today's archival interview was first broadcast commemorate the radio debut of the composer's 1976 breakthrough opera, Einstein on the Beach.

As part of Music of Constant Change, Q2 Music spotlights archival episodes of WNYC's New Sounds by streaming interviews between host John Schaefer and many of Glass's most important colleagues, including Ravi Shankar and director Robert Wilson.

As part of Music of Constant Change, Q2 Music unearths diverse historic interviews with Philip Glass, collected from the 75-year-old composer's many visits to New York Public Radio.

Philip Glass has been an extremely prolific composer, and has had long associations with two major record labels. Here are 10 recordings that will serve as an introduction to his hugely influential music.