Philip Glass Plans New Music and Conservation Center in California

Composer Philip Glass is currently creating a world class music and conservation center at Brazil Ranch in Big Sur, California, to be called Glass Center. The architect for the project is Mary Ann Schicketanz, of Carver + Schicketanz, Carmel.

The Center will host Glass’s Annual Days and Nights Festival which features innovative musicians, dancers, and other performers selected by Glass. It will also serve as an environmental learning center.

The complex will include two 150-seat performance venues that will be made up of renovated barns currently on the property, as well as a main theater between the barns. Renovations will also be made of existing facilities into a kitchen, dining area, an administration building and lodging for staff, musicians, artists and scientists in residence.

Brazil Ranch is a 1200 acre historic site owned by the U.S. Forest Service.

Glass has written such operas as Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, In the Penal Colony, Icarus and the Edge of Time, and The Voyage. In addition, he has written original music for the Public Theater’s productions of The Bacchae, Woyzeck, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, and Cymbeline. He was also a founding member of Mabou Mines.

As previously reported, Glass will celebrate his 75th birthday season with a series of performance and events across the globe. He is also penning a memoir, due out in 2012.