Philip Glass Ensemble: KOYAANISQATSI LIVE! - Life out of Balance
One of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, Philip Glass’ monumental score for KOYAANISQATSI LIVE! reinvented the relationship between music and the moving image.
The musicians of the Philip Glass Ensemble, conducted by long-time music director Michael Riesman, will perform the score live to accompany a screening of Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 cult film. An extraordinarily mind-blowing sensory experience, KOYAANISQATSI LIVE! brings together epic cinematography and the swelling intensity of Glass’ score.
A cinematic masterpiece that took over five years to shoot, KOYAANISQATSI is free of narrative. Drawing its title from the Hopi language word for ‘life out of balance’, footage of nature, cities and people is manipulated to dramatic effect through time-lapse and slowed-down shots, creating a powerful statement about our changing relationship to the environment.
Through his compositions, operas (Einstein on the Beach) and film scores (The Hours, Kundun), Glass – who turns 80 in 2017 – has contributed immensely to the musical and intellectual life of our times. In 1967, he founded the Philip Glass Ensemble – seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer – and they continue to perform his music across the world today.
An apocalyptic vision of the collision of urban life, technology and the environment, KOYAANISQATSI LIVE! promises to be an extraordinary musical and cinematic experience.