Philip Glass Recalls Working With David Bowie on Tibet House Concert

(Robert Thurman, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, and others at 2014′s Tibet House Benefit concert. Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

The relationship between minimalist composer and pianist Philip Glass and David Bowie dates back to 1992, when Glass wrote a symphony based on the themes and structures of David Bowie’s 1977 album Low. Glass’s Symphony No. 1: Low debuted in 1992 and was released a year later to critical acclaim. Then, in 1996, Glass again embraced Bowie’s work for Symphony No. 4: Heroes, which used musical ideas and motifs from Bowie’s 1977 album Heroes; it was released in 1996.

“Those were great pop music record that went against the grain of what other pop music was doing,” Glass tells Yahoo Music. “They were completely revolutionary, both musically and structurally, and it was a lot of fun to work with the themes to create these symphonies.”

(David Bowie during Tibet House Benefit Concert 2001 at the Carnegie Hall in New York, NY. Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.)

Glass met Bowie, a fan of Glass’s work, in the ‘70s, and the two became close friends in the late 1980s when the Thin White Duke and producer Tony Visconti worked in a room at Glass’s studio on Broadway and Bleecker Street.

“David lived just a few blocks from there, so David and Tony were tenants of our studio and we saw them all the time,” Glass says. “It was wonderful to spend time with David. He was a very smart guy and friendly. He was very private, but at the same time, when he was with people he was very entertaining.”

Though he’s a serious classical musician, Glass has always had a soft spot for pop performers, and has worked with everyone from Lou Reed to Miley Cyrus at his annual Tibet House Benefit Concert, now in its 26th year.

This year’s performance takes place this week, Monday, Feb. 22, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, featuring chanting Tibetan Monks and, Iggy Pop, the latter reading poetry while Glass plays piano and performs with Mandinka artist Foday Suso and Dutch harp player Lavinia Meijer. Pop will also play a third song Glass wants to remain a surprise. Many expect it will be some sort of a tribute to Bowie.

The performance marks Pop’s third appearance at the Benefit. Other performers this year include R&B singer FKA Twigs, the experimental gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, folk singer Basia Bulat, and funk performer Sharon Jones. In past years, Laurie Anderson, Beastie Boys, Ray Davies, the Flaming Lips, David Byrne, Patti Smith, Paul Simon, Allen Ginsberg and, of course, David Bowie (who appeared in 2001 and 2002) have played the event.

“When David Bowie played Tibet House, we would have rehearsals for him at my studio,” Glass says. “There’s one big rehearsal the day before at Carnegie Hall, but David was a professional and a perfectionist and wanted to make sure everything was right. We really got to know each other better that way.”

Glass was first inspired by Tibetan history in 1966 after working on a project with Indian spiritual musician legend Ravi Shankar. “I went up to Northern India and I had no idea there were a couple thousand Tibetans there who had escaped from the Chinese invasion. Like most people, I simply didn’t know what had happened. The invasion took place in 1959, so this was only seven years after the Chinese moved into Tibet.”

Moved by the Tibetan people he met and the stories they had to tell, Glass delved into Tibetan culture when he got back to New York. “I took a real interest in the music and I was always very open,” he says. “I think growing up in Baltimore made me curious about the rest of the world. If I had grown up in New York and I thought everything that I needed to know was in New York, I probably wouldn’t know a lot. Growing up in Baltimore, I knew that practically everything I didn’t know was not in Baltimore. And that created in me a thirst and a curiosity. That has guided me and inspired me my whole life.”

In 1972, Glass returned to Tibet and met the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and 30 years ago Gyatso invited Glass, Melissa Mathison, Richard Gere, and a few celebrities to meet with him to discuss a campaign for Tibetan Independence and awareness.

“He wanted to start cultural centers in different places,” Glass recalls. “He had one in New Delhi, one in New York, and one in Mexico City, and every one was called Tibet House. The idea was for the exiled community in Tibet to have a cultural home in these capital cities. It was a very wise and forward thinking idea. And we were the founding members, which was quite an honor.”

The first Tibet House Benefit took place in 1990 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and featured Laurie Anderson and Glass. The next year the show was staged at the Beacon Theater and included Ginsberg’s first appearance (the poet was a perennial at the shows until he died in 1997). Glass’s annual Tibet House Benefit spent 1992 and 1993 at Town Hall before landing in its current location in 1994.

“Carnegie Hall is the perfect location for the Benefit,” Glass says. “It has great sound and it’s quite famous. For a lot of these pop artists this may be the only time they’ll play the concert hall and I think for many of them that’s quite a thrill.”