Celebrate Brooklyn. The Phillip Glass Ensemble.
The first act was Marta Topferova. The cross-cultural Topferova is a Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter whose sound weaves together influences from South American folk music and her native Czech background. She sings in both Spanish and Czech. Marta plays guitar and the four stringed cuatro and sings beautifully. She played with her trio, bass and drums/percussion.
Next world-renowned composer Phillip Glass and his ensemble performed Glass' score to avant garde filmmaker Godfrey Reggio's visually stunning chronicle of cultures around the world Powaqqatsi (1988). They were joined in this rare event by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Before the performance Godfrey Reggio (Writer Director), Phillip Glass (Composer) and WYNC's Brian Lehrer gave a pre-show talk concerning the making of 'Powakatsi' and how the movie and the score were put together.
Phillip Glass Glass is best known for his minimalist style of composition. He studied at Julliard in New York and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. After working with Steve Reich for a while he formed the Phillip Glass Ensemble in 1971. He is a prolific composer and has written for opera, theatre. concerti, quartets and solo works but is probably best known for his film scores, three of which were nominated for Academy Awards. My favourite work is his violin concerto no. 1, my favourite modern `classical' work. I'm not normally a fan of the violin but this is a haunting evocative piece. The film score had a similar hypnotic quality and the film itself was a visual treat with beautiful images and exceptional camera work.
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