Philip Glass Ensemble performs Powaqqatsi in Rome

The Philip Glass Ensemble will perform on September 16, 2026, at 9:00 PM at the Sala Santa Cecilia of the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome, as part of the Romaeuropa Festival 2026.

The event will feature a screening of Godfrey Reggio’s film Powaqqatsi, accompanied by a live performance of its celebrated score.

Event Details

Date: September 16, 2026

Time: 9:00 PM

Venue: Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, Sala Santa Cecilia, Rome

Festival: Romaeuropa Festival 2026

Performance: Screening of Powaqqatsi (1988) with live music performed by the Philip Glass Ensemble

Tickets: Prices starting at approximately €20–30, available through Vivaticket or the Romaeuropa Festival website. https://www.auditorium.com/it/event/powaqqatsi-philip-glass-ensemble/

Powaqqatsi, a Hopi word meaning “a way of life that consumes other lives,” is the second chapter of the Qatsi trilogy created by Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass. Completed in 1988, immediately after Koyaanisqatsi, the film continues Reggio’s exploration of the relationship between humanity, development, and global transformation, shifting its focus toward the Global South and the tensions between traditional cultures and modernization.

The music is not simply an accompaniment to the images: it supports them, moves through them, and transforms them. The work marks a significant stage in Glass’s artistic development: alongside the hypnotic, modular structures characteristic of his musical language, it introduces a broader timbral and rhythmic palette, with more layered orchestral colors and influences drawn from non-Western musical traditions.

Never before performed in Rome, Powaqqatsi is presented by the Philip Glass Ensemble on the occasion of the forty-first edition of the Romaeuropa Festival, restoring the work to its original dimension as a total experience, in which orchestra and images breathe together and bring to the forefront one of the most emblematic chapters of Glass’s sonic universe.

Philip Glass Ensemble

Michael Riesman — Music Director, keyboards

Lisa Bielawa — Voice, keyboards

Peter Hess — Saxophones

Ryan Kelly — Onstage audio

Mick Rossi — Percussion

Sam Sadigursky — Saxophone, flute

Andrew Sterman — Flute, piccolo, saxophone

Frank Cassara — Percussion

Feico Deutekom — Keyboards

Pascal Meyer — Keyboards

Laura Sandee — Keyboards

Biography

The Philip Glass Ensemble (PGE) brings together leading performers of Philip Glass’s music. In 1968, Glass founded the PGE in New York as a workshop for his music. Its purpose was to develop a performance practice capable of responding to the unprecedented technical and artistic demands of his compositions. Pioneering this approach, the PGE became a fundamental creative source for Glass, and its members remain unrivaled interpreters of his work.

PGE artists recognize their unique position in the history of music over the past half-century, and preserving and transmitting this legacy is an essential part of their practice, together with a deep commitment to training the next generation of artists in the authentic performance of Philip Glass’s music.

The PGE made its debut at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1969. During its early years, it performed primarily in galleries, artists’ lofts, and museums throughout the vibrant artistic community of SoHo. Over the following five decades, the PGE has performed at renowned music festivals and concert halls across five continents and has recorded albums for Sony, Nonesuch, and Orange Mountain Music.

Many of Philip Glass’s best-known works were composed specifically for the PGE, including the landmark concert pieces Music in Twelve Parts, Music in Similar Motion, and Music with Changing Parts; the opera and musical theater projects Einstein on the Beach, Hydrogen Jukebox, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, and Monsters of Grace; as well as the major choreographic works Dance (Lucinda Childs) and A Descent Into the Maelström (Australian Dance Theatre).

The PGE is particularly acclaimed for its scores to Godfrey Reggio’s trilogy of non-verbal films: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi. The ensemble also appears in Glass’s works La Belle et la Bête and The Photographer.

During the 2026–2027 season, alongside an extensive touring schedule, the PGE will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Einstein on the Beach with a series of concert performances of the opera.