Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
He founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, which is still in existence, but Glass no longer performs with the ensemble. He has written 15 operas, numerous chamber operas and musical theatre works, 14 symphonies, 12 concertos, nine string quartets, various other chamber music pieces, and many film scores. He has received nominations for four Grammy Awards for including two for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Satyagraha and String Quartet No. 2. He has received three Academy Award for Best Original Score nominations for Martin Scorsese's Kundun, Stephen Daldry's The Hours, and Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal. He also composed the scores for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Hamburger Hill, The Thin Blue Line, Candyman, The Truman Show, and The Illusionist.