Michael Riesman is a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and record producer, best known as music director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and conductor of nearly all of Glass' film scores.
Biography Michael Riesman studied composition with Peter Stearns and conducting with Carl Bamberger at the Mannes College of Music and got a B.S. there in 1967. The summer of 1967 he went to the Aspen Music Festival where he studied with Darius Milhaud, and won the student composition prize. He then went on to study composition with Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, and Earl Kim at Harvard, where he earned an M.A. and PhD (1972). He was a composer in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1969 and a fellow at Tanglewood in 1970. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship in 1970 and studied with Gottfried von Einem in Vienna. He moved to New York City in the summer of 1971 and then taught at SUNY-Purchase that winter, leaving in the summer of 1972 to dedicate himself full-time to a performing career.
He had some early successes as a composer, most notably with "Phases", a work for electronically modulated piano, given a premiere in at the Metropolitan Museum in New York by Peter Serkin. The New York Times called the piece "the most interesting work on the program" which consisted of works by major 20th-century figures including Luciano Berio and Olivier Messiaen. Riesman later performed the piece himself at the New York Philharmonic's downtown series at the Public Theater. Another important work was his "Chamber Concerto" which he conducted in a performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere.
In 1974 he was invited by Philip Glass to join his Ensemble as a keyboard player and has been a member ever since. In the years since, his role with Glass expanded and he took on the duties of music director and conductor, encompassing arranging, personnel management, and conducting theatrical and film works.
He has released just one album of his own music, "Formal Abandon", which was written as a dance work for the choreographer Lucinda Childs and premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
As conductor, he has an appeared with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has two Grammy nominations, for "The Photographer" and "Kundun". As piano soloist, he has appeared with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, among others.
He has released 5 albums of music for solo piano. All are arrangements of film scores by Glass: The Hours; Dracula; a compilation called Philip Glass Soundtracks; a sequel, Philip Glass Soundtracks Vol. II; and Beauty and the Beast. He has many album credits as conductor, keyboardist, and producer.
As a student at Harvard he took a course in computer science and has maintained an involvement in computers and music technology through his career. This has included working as a beta tester and consultant for companies such as digidesign (now Avid) and Peavey, and writing music software for his own use.
He is married to Elizabeth Blakeslee Riesman, a retired Montessori teacher, and lives in New York City.
Discography Year Album Role 1979 Einstein On The Beach Conductor, Keyboards, Producer 1982 Glassworks 1983 Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon Conductor Carmina Burana - Ray Manzarek Synthesizers, Orchestrations, Conductor Koyaanisqatsi (Original Soundtrack) Conductor, Keyboards, Producer 1984 The Photographer 1985 Mishima (Original Soundtrack) 1986 Satyagraha Keyboards, Producer 1986 Songs from Liquid Days Conductor1987 Formal Abandon (LP) Composer, Keyboards, Producer Akhnaten Keyboards, Producer 1988 Powaqqatsi (Original Soundtrack) Conductor, Keyboards, Producer 1990 Passages - Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass1993 Black Tie White Noise - David Bowie Conductor, ArrangerAnima Mundi Conductor, Keyboards, ProducerEinstein on the Beach Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - Gavin Bryars 1995 La Belle Et La Bête 1997 Kundun (Original Soundtrack) 1998 Koyaanisqatsi (New Recording) 2002 A Descent into the MaelströmEarly VoiceNaqoyqatsi (Original Soundtrack)The Hours (Original Soundtrack) Piano, Producer 2003 Music from the Thin Blue Line Conductor, Keyboards, Producer2004 Music from The Hours (solo piano) Piano, ArrangerThe Fog of War (Original Soundtrack) Conductor, Keyboards, Producer2005 Orion The Music of Undertow 2006 The Illusionist (Original Soundtrack)2007 Dracula Piano, Arranger Book of Longing Conductor, Keyboards, Producer Cassandra's Dream Monsters of Grace Notes on a Scandal2008 Philip Glass Soundtracks (solo piano) Piano, Arranger Animals in Love Conductor, Keyboards, Producer Music in Twelve Parts (Live Album) Neverwas (Original Soundtrack) 2010 The Philip Glass Ensemble: A Retrospective (Live Album) Music Director, Keyboards 2011 Glassworks Live at Le Poisson Rouge Piano/Keyboards, Producer 2013 Voices for Didgeridoo & Organ; Organ Suite Organ, Arranger, Producer Symphony No. 3 - Suite from The Hours Piano, Arranger, Producer 2014 Koyaanisqatsi - Live, Philip Glass Ensemble & The New York Philharmonic Conductor, Mixing
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