Harpist Lavinia Meijer Releases
Dreaming Awake –The Music of Philip Glass
New Album on Sony Classical Out January 29, 2027
New Single: Truman Sleeps
Out Now - Listen Here
On January 29, 2027 Sony Classical will release Dreaming Awake – The Music of Philip Glass, the new album by acclaimed Dutch harpist Lavinia Meijer. Accompanying this announcement is the new single Truman Sleeps, which is out now - listen here.
This is Meijer's third recording dedicated to the music of Philip Glass and is also her most personal: a musical tribute that not only marks the composer’s 90th birthday but celebrates their musical relationship which has shaped Meijer’s artistic life for more than fifteen years.
For her previous Glass recordings, Meijer focused music originally written by him for the piano, whereas now with Dreaming Awake, she explores music from the whole range of Glass’s long and varied career, including film scores, operas and stage works, performed both as solo harp pieces and in collaboration with some of Meijer’s closest musical partners.
With her new Philip Glass album Dreaming Awake, Lavinia Meijer broadens her view of Glass’s musical world. Rather than focusing primarily on music originally written for piano, the new album draws on music from his film scores, operas and other stage works. The recording also expands beyond the sound of the solo harp, bringing Meijer together with several of her closest musical collaborators, including her life partner, Reyer Zwart.
The title comes from Glass’s little-known 2002 piano work Dreaming Awake, composed to benefit the Tibetan Buddhist organization Jewel Heart. For Meijer, the title captures something essential about both the music of Glass and her own approach to performing it: the balance between freedom and absolute concentration. The repetitive structures can create an almost trance-like state, yet precisely because of this, the performer must remain constantly alert to the subtle changes within the music.
“To feel free but focused, that’s the concept in a nutshell,” says Meijer. “So ‘dreaming awake’ is a perfect analogy for that kind of balance.”
The unique resonance of the harp has been central to Meijer’s exploration of Glass from the beginning. As a teenager, she set herself the goal of showing audiences that the instrument could be far more than the gentle, romantic sound often associated with orchestras or background music. For her, Glass’s music became an ideal vehicle to reveal its depth, resonance, and extraordinary range of overtones.
“Philip Glass’s music has helped me to demonstrate how much depth there is to the instrument,” she explains. “The harp makes a sound with a lot of resonance and many overtones, so if I play one tone, you may hear what sounds like more than one. In fact, I’m often told that when I play it can sound like a whole orchestra.”
Her close work with Glass has also shaped the way she approaches his music. He taught her to keep its textures open when transferring them to the harp, an instrument whose resonance can easily make the music too dense, and to pay close attention to the weight and timing of every note. For Meijer, however, all these details ultimately serve one purpose: expression.
Alongside her arrangements of Glass’s music, Dreaming Awake also includes Meijer’s own composition Atmospheric Rivers. Inspired by Glass’s music for a documentary about climate change, the piece reflects the phenomenon of vast rivers of water vapour in the atmosphere and the way changes within them can contribute to storms, flooding, and devastation.
Ten years after The Glass Effect celebrated Philip Glass’s 80th birthday, Dreaming Awake becomes Meijer’s personal tribute to the composer as he turns 90.
“Philip’s music is about life in all its complexity, and with themes that are so urgent to us today,” says Meijer. “And, in a way, his music is life for me because it harnesses the power of art to connect with one’s inner self.”
Lavinia Meijer has played an important role in opening up the music of Philip Glass to an entirely new sound world. When she first met the composer in 2011 in Amsterdam, she performed her harp arrangement of his Metamorphosis. Glass was fascinated by the transformation of his music and gave Meijer his blessing to arrange his works for her instrument. They have worked together regularly ever since. The collaboration also became one of the defining chapters of Meijer’s recording career. Her 2012 album Metamorphosis / The Hours reached No. 3 in the Dutch album charts and achieved Platinum status. Four years later, The Glass Effect – The Music of Philip Glass followed on Sony Classical, featuring Meijer’s own harp arrangements of ten of Glass’s Etudes and Koyaanisqatsi. The album reached No. 17 in the Netherlands and remained in the charts for ten weeks.
Dreaming Awake – The Music of Philip Glass will be released on January 29, 2027 via Sony Classical.