James McVinnie Ensemble: Glassworks

Phillip Glass is a composer of epic operas and film scores as well as works for the concert hall and so transcends the world of contemporary classical music. His mesmeric 40-minute work for mixed ensemble Glassworks was, in the composer’s own words, “intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then” and it has become a cult classic. With its trademark repeated riffs, overlapping patterns and glittering sonorities it has an inexorable momentum and a pulsating energy.

James McVinnie Ensemble is a collective of virtuoso keyboardists dedicated to exploring work preoccupied with political themes by contemporary and emerging composers. The ensemble’s roots go back to 2017 with a performance at London’s Barbican Centre of Music in Twelve Parts by Philip Glass– the only performance in the piece’s history given by anyone other than the Philip Glass Ensemble.

The group launched in its current incarnation in 2021 with composer portraits of John Adams, Philip Glass & Gabriella Smith at Bold Tendencies. In November they gave the world premiere of Chris P Thompson’s True Stories & Rational Numbers and a new arrangement of Philip Glass’s seminal Glassworks to a capacity crowd at London’s Barbican Centre.