In Depth Conversation with the Philip Glass Ensemble’s Michael Riesman | Ep 7

With Video Here: https://youtu.be/2dKQdAB36qM

Michael Riesman is the musical director and conductor of The Philip Glass Ensemble. In this episode, Michael talks about his work from starting out as a keyboardist in the Philip Glass Ensemble, to conducting the chorus in the opera 'Einstein on The Beach,' in 1976 to conducting the many film scores for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Godfrey Reggio, and Errol Morris. Philip Glass is one of the most surprising composers of the late 20th and early 21st century in that his work deals with a great amount of repetition which was very different for the time during the 1970s and 1980s. Michael Riesman is one of the first people to ever perform Glass' music and in return has a very prestigious role in the Philip Glass enterprise. We talk about this progression from the minimalistic and repetitious 'Music in Twelve Parts' to the opera 'Einstein on The Beach' to the classical approach for the film 'Koyaanisqatsi'.

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Link His Album 'Formal Abandon' - https://open.spotify.com/album/6Dr3SAWoJKg6L4ZB13Q87T?si=RZhnFz-oTKGBVo6DF-IDCg

Intro to Philip Glass' Music Here: https://open.spotify.com/album/1My9AZY0XBwVwwy1DDVSQS?si=mqoDFalEQuuwCOsO2u7Q5Q

Special Thanks to Alexander Nunley for creating the thumbnail!

Time Stamps:

Musical Background 0:30 Approaching Philip Glass 3:11 Initial Thoughts on The Music 7:55 "Music in Twelve Parts" 8:55 Compositional tricks with "Music in Twelve Parts"? 11:41 Was there a score for "Music in Twelve Parts"? 15:02 More about Cells 18:25 Did you have any feelings of bland-ness? 22:57 On Touring 26:25 Your time with Darius Milhaud 30:30 Development of "Einstein on The Beach" 32:50 From "Einstein" to "Koyaanisqatsi" 35:55 Dissecting Minimalism 39:33 Question of Repetition 41:50 Question of Harmony 48:08 Scores not available to the public? 51:38 Pieces that stick out as a conductor 54:26 Conducting recordings 56:17 What interested you about conducting? 57:45 What's difficult about conducting Glass? 1:01:56 Why did you devote so much of your career to the music of Glass 1:06:37 Conducting film scores 1:10:53 On the film score "Mishima" 1:11:30 Film Directors not coming to recording sessions 1:13:24 On Martin Scorsese 1:15:12 'Temp Love' and "The Truman Show" 1:22:21 Woody Allen film "Cassandra's Dream" 1:25:10 More on conducting Glass 1:26:56 Difference between conducting vs playing Glass 1:27:35 Being Musical Director 1:28:33 On Post-Minimalism 1:33:60 Music of Re-Animated by Riesman 1:36:00 Composers your interested in? 1:39:14