Philip Glass: Taxi Driver

BBC Radio 4

Philip Glass revisits his parallel lives in 1970s New York, driving a taxicab through threatening twilight streets while emerging as a composer in Manhattan’s downtown arts scene. The Philip Glass Ensemble performed in lofts, art galleries and eventually concert halls. Two of Glass’s early pieces, the long form Music In Twelve Parts and the opera Einstein on the Beach secured his reputation as a leading voice in new music. But America’s soon to be most successful contemporary composer continued to earn a living by driving a taxi until he was 42.


Produced by Paul Smith
Broadcast on Tuesday 18th August 2015