Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is a three-time Academy Award-nominated American composer. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public (apart from precursors such as Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein).
Glass's music is frequently described as minimalist, though he has distanced himself from that description, calling himself a composer of "music with repetitive structures." Although his earliest music could be called minimalist, his style has evolved enough that the label is inappropriate for many of his more recent works.
Glass is a prolific composer: he has written ensemble works, operas, symphonies, concertos, film scores, and solo works. Glass counts many visual artists, writers, musicians, and directors among his friends, including Richard Serra, Chuck Close, Doris Lessing, Allen Ginsberg, Errol Morris, Robert Wilson, JoAnne Akalaitis, John Moran, actor Bill Treacher, Godfrey Reggio, Ravi Shankar, Linda Ronstadt, David Bowie, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, and electronic musician Aphex Twin, who have all collaborated with him. Among recent collaborators are Glass' fellow New Yorkers Leonard Cohen, and Woody Allen.
Glass is "a Jewish-Taoist-Hindu-Toltec-Buddhist" , and a strong supporter of the Tibetan cause. In 1987 he co-founded the Tibet House with Columbia University professor Robert Thurman and the actor Richard Gere. He has four children: two (Zachary (b. 1971) and Juliet (b. 1968)) with his first wife, the theater director JoAnne Akalaitis (m. 1965, div. 1980); and two (Marlowe and Cameron) with his current, fourth wife, Holly Critchlow. Glass lives in New York and in Nova Scotia.
