Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass graduated from the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, he spent two years studying intensively in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar's Indian music into Western notation. In 1974, he launched a number of innovative projects, creating a vast collection of new music for the Philip Glass Ensemble and the Mabou Mines Theatre Company.This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts and the landmark opera Einstein on the Beach, for which he collaborated with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein on the Beach, Philip Glass has expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theatre, orchestra and film. His film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards (Kundun, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal) and have received a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). His memoir, Words Without Music, was published by Liveright Books in 2015.Philip Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and the 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018. His recent works include the opera Circus Days and Nights, Symphony No. 14, and Prelude for Organ, composed for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris. During the 2025-2026 season, his opera Satyagraha will enter the repertoire of the Opéra national de Paris.