A Minimal Glimpse of Philip Glass

When direc­tor David Hill­man Cur­tis and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Ben Wolf paid a vis­it recent­ly to com­pos­er Philip Glass to film a pro­mo­tion­al piece for the Brook­lyn Acad­e­my of Music, they were grant­ed just 30 min­utes. “He was booked sol­id the day we vis­it­ed his offices and actu­al­ly was being fol­lowed by a min­der who sat on the couch just out of the frame check­ing his watch,” said Cur­tis. “I’ve become a pret­ty good inter­view­er and was able to loosen Mr. Glass up a bit and he took it from there, giv­ing a great inter­view, and we were done in 30 min­utes.” In the result­ing two-minute film, Glass express­es amuse­ment over his recent fas­ci­na­tion with clas­si­cal music. “Where are my fron­tiers,” asks the com­pos­er, whose work is fre­quent­ly described as avant-garde? “My fron­tiers are actu­al­ly not in front of me. They’re behind me.”

You can learn more about Philip Glass and hear free sam­ples of his music at PhilipGlass.com.