On January 31, 2027, Philip Glass turns ninety, and the world of contemporary music pauses to honor a titan. Through his operas, symphonies, film scores, and decades of work with the Philip Glass Ensemble, he has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact on the musical and intellectual life of his times, the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film, and in popular music, simultaneously. His music has shaped how we hear time itself: its patterns, its repetitions, its slow accumulations of beauty. Philip Glass at 90: A Celebration gathers four extraordinary artists in the months leading up to this milestone with a program that traces both the intimacy and the expansive reach of Glass's chamber writing.
At the heart of the evening is cellist Wendy Sutter, one of Glass's most cherished collaborators and the dedicatee of his solo cello suites Songs and Poems (2007) and Songs and Poems 2 (2022). Joining her are flutist DeMarre McGill, NLM Artistic Director Desirée Ruhstrat, and NLM Artist-in-Residence Rabia Brooke, performing on the 1731 Lady Jeanne Stradivarius. Together, these four musicians offer a portrait of Glass shaped by those who have lived inside his music, who have premiered it, championed it, and carried it forward.
The evening also features an NLM-commissioned world premiere by one of Glass's own protégés, a composer whose voice has been formed in dialogue with his, and whose new work extends the lineage of mentorship and influence that has long defined Glass's life in music. The composer will be in attendance to celebrate the premiere and lead a post-concert Q&A and catered reception.
Ninety years is a long arc. Philip Glass at 90: A Celebration honors the composer not as a monument, but as a living presence, still shaping the way we hear, still inviting us closer.
