Born in Baltimore on January 31, 1937, Philip Glass discovered music in his father's radio repair shop. In addition to servicing radios, Ben Glass carried a line of records and, when certain ones sold poorly, he would take them home and play them for his three children, trying to discover why they didn't appeal to customers. These happened to be recordings of the great chamber works, and the future composer rapidly became familiar with Beethoven quartets, Schubert sonatas, Shostakovich symphonies and other music then considered 'offbeat.' It was not until he was in his upper teens did Glass begin to encounter more 'standard' classics.

Glass began the violin at six and became serious about music when he took up the flute at eight. But by the time he was 15, he had become frustrated with the limited flute repertoire as well as with musical life in post-war Baltimore. During his second year in high school, he applied for admission to the University of Chicago, passed and, with his parents' encouragement, moved to Chicago where he supported himself with part-time jobs waiting tables and loading airplanes at airports. He majored in mathematics and philosophy, and in off hours practiced piano and concentrated on such composers as Ives and Webern.

At 19, Glass graduated from the University of Chicago and moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School. During this time, he abandoned the 12-tone techniques he used in Chicago and explored the works of American composers like Aaron Copland and William Schuman. Eventually Glass would study with Vincent Persichetti, Darius Milhaud and William Bergsma. Rejecting serialism, Glass gravitated to such maverick composers as Harry Partch, Ives, Moondog, Henry Cowell and Virgil Thomson, but still had not found his own voice. In 1960, he moved to Paris and spent two years of intensive study under Nadia Boulanger. It was in Paris that filmmaker Conrad Roods hired Glass to transcribe ragas by Ravi Shankar's into western notation. During this process, Glass discovered the techniques of Indian music. After researching music in North Africa, India and the Himalayas, he returned to New York and applied these techniques to his own work.

By 1974, Glass had composed a large collection of new music for his performing group, The Philip Glass Ensemble, and music for the Mabou Mines Theater Company, co-founded by Glass. This period culminated in Music in 12 Parts (1974), a three-hour summation of Glass' new music, followed by the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach (1976), a five-hour epic created with Robert Wilson that is now seen as a landmark in 20th century music-theater. This work, the first in Glass's 'portrait' trilogy, was followed by Satyagraha, created for the Netherlands Opera in 1980, and Akhnaten, for the Stuttgart Opera in 1984. Over the years, Glass and Wilson worked on several other projects including Civil Wars (Rome) (1984), the fifth act of a multi-composer epic written for the 1984 Olympics; White Raven (1991), an opera commissioned by Portugal to celebrate its history of discovery and premiering at EXPO '98 in Lisbon and in 2001 at the Lincoln Center Festival, and Monsters of Grace (1998), a digital 3-D opera.

Beyond these landmark works, Glass' repertoire spans the genres of opera, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance, theater, and film and includes collaborations with a variety of distinctive contemporary artists. His operas include The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1986) and Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five (1997) with librettos written by Doris Lessing based on her novels; Hydrogen Jukebox (1990) with a libretto by Allen Ginsberg based on his poetry; The Voyage (1992), based on the explorations of Christopher Columbus with a libretto written by David Henry Hwang; The Fall of the House of Usher (1988), based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story with a libretto by Arthur Yorinks; and In the Penal Colony (2000), a musical theater work based on the short story by Franz Kafka with a libretto by Rudolf Wurlitzer. Glass' most recent opera collaborations include Galileo Galilei (2002) with Mary Zimmerman and The Sound of a Voice (2003) with David Henry Hwang.

No less varied are Glass' orchestral works. There are large-scale works for chorus and orchestra such as Itaipu (1989) and Symphony No. 5 (1999), a symphonic chorus based on texts from wisdom traditions throughout the world, Symphony No. 2 (1996), commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony No. 3 (1996), Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode) (2001), with text by Allen Ginsberg, and 'Low' and 'Heroes' Symphonies (1992, 1997), both based on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Glass also produced a five string quartets as well as concertos for violin and orchestra, saxophone quartet and orchestra, two timpanists and orchestra, and harpsichord and orchestra. His Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2000) premiered at the Klanspuren Festival in Tirol, Austria, and his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2001), commissioned for Julian Lloyd Webber's 50th Birthday, premiered at the Beijing Festival.

Beyond the genres of opera, orchestra, and film scores, Glass also has a number unclassifiable dance, theater, and recording works. Dance hybrids include In the Upper Room (1986), choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and A Descent into the Maelstrom (1986). Theater hybrids include The Photographer (1983), The Mysteries and What's so Funny? (1990) and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988) with a libretto by David Henry Hwang and designs by Jerome Sirlin. Glass has also created a trilogy of musical theater pieces based on the films of Jean Cocteau: Orphée (1993), La Belle et La Bête (1994) and Les Enfants Terribles (1996). His hybrid recording projects include Passages (1991) with Ravi Shankar and Songs from Liquid Days (1986) with lyrics by David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Suzanne Vega.

In 2003, Glass premiered the opera The Sound of a Voice with David Henry Hwang, created the score to Errol Morris' Academy Award winning documentary The Fog of War, and released the CD Études for Piano Vol. I, No. 1-10 on the Orange Mountain Music label. Orion premiered in 2004, a collaboration between Glass and six other international artists opening in Athens as part of the cultural celebration of the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Glass also premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. Premieres for 2005 include his Symphony No. 7 with the National Symphony Orchestra and the opera Waiting for the Barbarians, based on the book by John Coetzee.

Glass continues to regularly tour with Philip on Film, performing live with his ensemble to a series of new short films as well as classics like Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, La Belle et La Bête, and Dracula.

The concerto is written in the traditional three movements. The first movement entitled "The Vision" is based on Lewis and Clark and was described by Glass as a "musical steamroller" signifying the tremendous resolve and energy required of Lewis and Clark for their remarkable expedition. The movement opens in the key of G minor with a driving molto allegro theme in the irregular meter of 6+4/8. This energetic section is followed by a segue into a slower contrasting section in 4/4 time beginning with a piano ostinato. This section gradually increases in musical complexity as more and more voices are added to the musical texture each with their own rhythmic identity. The opening molto allegro section returns in 5/4 time and then is ingeniously combined with the ostinato of the slower 4/4 section played by the left hand of the piano. The pianist therefore has the interesting rhythmic challenge of playing an intense polymeter with the left hand in 4/4 time the right hand in 5/4 simultaneously. This rhythmic tension is finally resolved as the movement reaches its climax at the fortissimo statement of the opening theme in the triumphant meter of 4/4. A coda follows with the return of the slower tempo punctuated by virtuoso double octaves.

The second movement is based on Sacagawea, Shoshone Indian, mother, and indispensable companion to Lewis and Clark. The opening theme in the flute is a musical representation of the name 'Sacagawea.' This lyrical contemplative theme in the brooding key of F Sharp minor gives way to a faster section exploiting the B major/minor triad, which accompanies a traditional Shoshone theme. These two distinct and rather disparate thematic ideas are then combined in a developmental middle section. The mood is one of dark, lyrical contemplation mixed with the more festive traditional Shoshone theme. The return of the Sacagawea theme begins with rather heavy, angst-laden syncopated chords in the piano. But as the return progresses, the chords are gradually replaced by the calming effect of undulating triplets. The movement ends with quiet resignation and resolution in A major.

The third and final movement entitled "The Land" is a gloriously expansive theme and variations reflecting the great vastness of the land explored by Lewis and Clark. And this expansiveness refers not only to the vast area involved, but the expanse of time over which the land has evolved. As Glass commented in our final working session on the concerto in July of 2004, "I wanted this final movement to reflect also the expanse of time - what the land was before the expedition and what it became after." The movement begins with an extended introduction followed by the initial statement of the theme. This stately theme derived both from the closing measures of the first movement and the opening theme of the Sacagawea movement is characterized by large, opulent chords animated by unusual inner lines creating a Bach-like relationship between the vertical chord structures and the inner voices. My solo transcription includes settings of Variations I, IV, and VI with my cadenza preceding the sixth variation.

The world premier performance of Glass's Piano Concerto No.2 (After Lewis and Clark)took place in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 18th 2004 with the Omaha Symphony at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. The world premier recording with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra was released by Orange Mountain Music in October of 2006.

Praised by the New York Times for his "Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity," and the San Francisco Chronicle as "ferociously virtuosic," pianist Paul Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured four times on APM's Performance Today and on the cover of Clavier Magazine. He has recently performed in Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Vienna, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Greece, Serbia, Minsk, Budapest and in all major cities throughout the US.

Deeply inspired by the aesthetic challenge of minimalism, Barnes gave the world premier performance of Philip Glass's Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark) with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra under Victor Yampolsky. The Omaha World Herald praised Barnes for his "driving intensity and exhilaration." Nebraska Educational Telecommunications' television production "The Lewis and Clark Concerto" a documentary/performance of the concerto featuring Barnes won an Emmy and Best Performance Production award. At a performance of the concerto in Boston, the Boston Globe praised Barnes for his "strong and sympathetic performance" while the Boston Herald remarked "Barnes sailed through the concerto with authority." Additional performances of the concerto included collaborations with conductor Marin Alsop at the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and also the Northwest Chamber Orchestra where the Seattle Times called Barnes' performance "an impressive feat." The world-premier recording with the NWCO was released by Orange Mountain Music in September of 2006. Gramophone Magazine remarked that this recording is "certainly one of the most enjoyable recent releases of Glass's music... Paul Barnes is a shining soloist."

Orange Mountain Music also released Barnes' solo recording of his transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass, including both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano. Gramophone Magazine observed that "Barnes offers a surprisingly expressive reading.... Atmosphere and rhythmic vitality are important, and these qualities Barnes has in abundance." The American Record Guide said "Barnes is an expressive pianist with a lovely tone and a flair for the dramatic." Both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano are published by Chester-Novello of London and are available at musicroom.com.

Barnes also serves as head chanter at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lincoln, Nebraska where his fascination with Byzantine chant led to a commissioned piano concerto written by Victoria Bond based on an Orthodox chant. The work entitled "Ancient Keys" was premiered by Barnes with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Kirk Trevor. The world-premier recording of this concerto as well as Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was just released on the Albany Records label with Barnes as soloist with the Slovak Radio Orchestra, Kirk Trevor conducting.

With performances throughout Europe, the Near East, the Far East, and the U.S., Barnes' unique lecture/recitals have received international acclaim. Liszt and the Cross: Music as Sacrament in the B Minor Sonata explores the fascinating relationship between music, theology, and the Orthodox icon. Barnes' live recording of this lecture recital was recently released on the Liszt Digital label. Paul Schoemaker of the British Society Newsletter wrote that Barnes was "a fine pianist and gives us a performance of resounding conviction." Janice Weber of Clavier Magazine remarked that "It is a majestic, reverential performance that elevates listeners to the sacred experience Barnes so eloquently describes in his lecture."

Recently elected to the national board of the American Liszt Society, Barnes hosted the 2005 ALS festival at the University of Nebraska Lincoln from April 14-16, 2005. The festival's theme was Heaven on Earth: Exploring the Sacred in Music and featured Liszt's monumental oratorio Christus.

Barnes is Associate Professor and Co-chair of Piano at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. He teaches during the summer at the Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna and also coaches the students of Menahem Pressler, Barnes' own teacher, at Indiana University where Barnes received his doctorate in Piano Performance. In great demand as a pedagogue and clinician, Barnes has served as convention artist at several state MTNA conventions. He was named "Teacher of the Year" by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association at their 2006 state convention. Barnes recently returned from China and Korea where he performed and taught as part of his spring 2007 sabbatical leave. p Sato Moughalian

Sato Moughalian, flutist, appears as a recitalist, soloist, and orchestral musician in New York City, and has performed hundreds of chamber music concerts under the auspices of Columbia Artists Management in six seasons of touring North America. Her festival performances as a chamber musician and soloist have included the Diaghilev Festival (Perm, Russia), Moussem Culturel d'Asilah (Morocco), Festival de Prades (France) - Pablo Casals, Skaneateles Festival, Brooklyn Academy's Next Wave Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Cape May Music Festival, Adirondack Festival of American Music, Bar Harbor Festival, Music from Salem, Simar Festival, and Mohawk Trails Concerts, ABRAF Festival Internacional in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the Costa Rica International Chamber Festival.

Ms. Moughalian performed Bach Sonatas with pianist Diane Walsh for Lincoln Center's Great Performers Bach Festival, as soloist with the National Symphony of Ecuador, the Naumberg Orchestra, Bachannalia, Long Island Philharmonic, Hudson Chamber Symphony, and the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, with which she recorded the Brazilian composer Osvaldo Lacerda's Piccolo Concerto and the Alec Wilder Suite for flute and strings for the Helicon label. In 2005 she served as guest Principal flute in the Orquestra Sinfonico do Estado São Paulo, Brazil, and had also participated in a five week, 28-concert tour of Brazil performing and recording 20th and 21st century chamber works of Brazilian composers for SESC.

Recently, she appeared in recital with soprano Barbara Hendricks at the 92nd St. Y in a program of Bach cantatas for soprano and flute solo. She recorded a solo CD, The Operatic Flute with pianist Mikael Eliasen for the MHS label. She has appeared as guest flutist with numerous groups including Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Richardson Chamber Players, New York Chamber Ensemble, L'Ensemble, Dorian Quintet, Essential Music, Amadeus Virtuosi. In 1999 she became a member of the Quintet of the Americas, a woodwind quintet founded in 1976 in Bogota, Colombia, which specializes in the performance of works by living composers of North and South America, and has recorded two discs with the group.

An active freelance player in the New York area, she serves as solo flute of Gotham Chamber Opera, L'Opera Francais de New York, New Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, St. Patrick's Cathedral, appearing annually on their televised Christmas Eve celebration and on international television during the New York City visit of Pope John Paul II. She has been guest principal flute with groups including American Ballet Theatre, Long Island Philharmonic, Westfield Symphony, Stamford Symphony, Queens Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, and numerous others. She performs for the concert programs of St. Ignatius, First Presbyterian, Trinity (Wall St.), and Redeemer Presbyterian churches. Ms. Moughalian was recently appointed principal flute of the Colonial Symphony.

Ms. Moughalian was the resident flute professor for three seasons for the Governor's School for the Arts in Virginia, and has presented classes based on her study of the bel canto vocal approach with Mikael Eliasen. She has presented flute classes during residencies in Cali, Colombia, at the National Conservatory in Tblisi, Georgia, at the Special Secondary Music School in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Beijing, China, and at numerous universities in the United States. The Quintet of the Americas is in residence at New York University, and presents a Woodwind Institute there annually in June. In addition, her major teachers were Keith Underwood and Philip Dunigan at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Dufallo's projects have received grants from the Copland Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has recorded for such labels as Mode, Tzadik, and Cantaloupe. Dufallo holds Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees from New York's prestigious Juilliard School.

Her performances have taken her to venues such as Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Miller Theatre, Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York, as well as at Chopin, Archipel, Flanders, Divonne, Ars Musica, BAM's Next Wave and Spoleto USA Festivals, with groups such as Ensemble Contrechamps, Millennium Festival Orchestra and Flemish Radio Orchestra.

She is the subject of the documentary, "Zahara", by Elemental Films Spain.

Highlights of this upcoming season include appearances with Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale della RAI in Italy, SWR Rundfunkorchester in Germany and an Asia Tour to Singapore, Malaysia, and China with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. Other performances will take her to the Smithsonian, the Phillips Collection, Corcoran Gallery, Symphony Space, 92nd Street Y, Alden Theater, and the Mostly Modern Festival of New York's Austrian Cultural Forum.

Jenny records for Koch International Classics, Hänssler Classic, BIS Records, Sunrise Records, and Poem Culture Records. Her discography includes the critically acclaimed "Preludes to a Revolution", "The 11th Finger", complete piano music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, "Chinoiserie", Liszt Sonata and Schumann Fantasy, and works by Chinese composers Guan Xia and Ma Yo-Dao. An album of Valentin Silvestrov's piano music is due for release in fall 2006 as well as works for Piano and Orchestra by Ernest Bloch in 2007.

Jenny studied with Noel Flores at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, with Julian Martin at the Peabody Conservatory (Artist Diploma) in Baltimore, and with Dominique Weber in Geneva. She has also worked with Richard Goode and Blanca Uribe in New York, and with Dimitri Bashkirov and Andreas Staier at the Fondazione Internazionale per il pianoforte in Cadenabbia, Italy. She holds a bachelor's degree in German Literature from The Johns Hopkins University and currently resides in New York City where she serves on the faculty of the 92nd Street Y Music School.

Composer Victoria Bond's recent commissions include The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra (2006), Fontana Chamber Arts (2006); Pianofest (2005), The American Society for Jewish Music (2005) and the Elements String Quartet (2005). Her opera A More Perfect Union was presented by The New York City Opera and the Center for Contemporary Opera on the VOX and Friends series in 2004, and in 2005 at the Diagilev Festival in Russia. The New York City Opera performed four scenes from her opera Mrs. Satan as part of Showcasing American Composers in 2001.

She has written ballets for the American Ballet Theater, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and her orchestral compositions have been performed by the Houston Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Women's Philharmonic, the Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), the Slovak Radio Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Shanghai, Hunan and Wuhan Symphonies (China) and the Orquestra de Santos (Brazil).

Her chamber music has been performed by the Audubon, Elements, Lumina and Pro Arte String Quartets, Ethel, Sequitur, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Renaissance City Winds, Joy in Singing, L'Ensemble, the Jade Trio, the Albemarle Ensemble, the Aviva Players, the Sylvan Winds, the Claremont Duo, and Duo Gelland.

Born in Los Angeles into a family of professional musicians, Victoria Bond began her formal training at the Mannes School, studying piano with Nadia Reisenberg. At the University of Southern California she studied composition with Ingolf Dahl and worked for Paul Glass, composing film scores for Universal and Metromedia Studios. As a scholarship student at the Juilliard School, Bond studied composition with Roger Sessions and conducting with Sixten Ehrling, winning the Victor Herbert Award and becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in orchestral conducting in 1977. While still a student, she worked with

Pierre Boulez, Dennis Russell Davies and Aaron Copland and studied with Herbert von Karajan.

Her recordings include: American Piano Concertos; Live from Shanghai; Black Light; An American Collage; Character Sketches; A Modest Proposal; Molly ManyBloom; and Victoria Bond: Compositions.

Victoria Bond has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and on the NBC Today Show, featured in People Magazine and in the New York Times.

Jack Lenor Larsen, internationally known textile designer, author, and collector, is one of the world's foremost advocates of traditional and contemporary crafts.

His awards are many and his designs are in collections of international museums. Larsen is associated with schools and art centers worldwide. Jack Lenor Larsen founded the firm that bears his name in 1952. Over the past five decades, Larsen the Company has grown steadily to become a dominant resource for signature fabrics for the international design trade.

The "Larsen Look" began with Mr. Larsen's own award-winning hand-woven fabrics of varied, natural yarns in random repeats, and has evolved to become synonymous with modern design at its pinnacle of style and sophistication.

Known as an innovator in fabric design, Jack Larsen has won many awards and is one of only two design houses ever to be honored with an exhibition at the Palais du Louvre. In July 1997 Colefax and Fowler Group Plc., the renowned London-based fabric company and Jack Lenor Larsen, Incorporated announced the merger between the Larsen and Cowtan & Tout, the USA subsidiary of Colefax and Fowler designs. More than a weaver, Mr. Larsen is a scholar, world traveler, and one of the world's foremost authorities on traditional and contemporary crafts. His home, LongHouse, located on 16 acres in East Hampton, NY, was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life-style, and with the belief that the visitor experiencing a living space in the full round has a unique learning experience--far removed from the commercial priorities of model rooms or show houses.

Inspired by the famous Japanese shrine at Ise, LongHouse contains 13,000 square feet, 18 spaces on four levels. The gardens present the designed landscape as an art form in its own right.

The grounds also offer a diversity of sites for the preservation of multifarious species where they can flourish for generations to come.