In 1964, Glass received a Fulbright Scholarship his studies in Paris with the eminent composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, from autumn of 1964 to summer of 1966, influenced his work throughout his life, as the composer admitted in 1979: "The composers I studied with Boulanger are the people I still think about most- Bach and Mozart." After leaving Juilliard in 1962, Glass moved to Pittsburgh and worked as a school-based composer-in-residence in the public school system, composing various choral, chamber and orchestral music. In the summer of 1960, he studied with Darius Milhaud at the summer school of the Aspen Music Festival and composed a violin concerto for a fellow student, Dorothy Pixley-Rothschild. In 1959, he was a winner in the BMI Foundation's BMI Student Composer Awards, an international prize for young composers. Fellow students included Steve Reich and Peter Schickele. His composition teachers included Vincent Persichetti and William Bergsma. Glass studied at the Juilliard School of Music where the keyboard was his main instrument. was attracted to, and those were the people I hung out with."
He visited artists' studios and saw their work Glass recalls, "the bohemian life you see in Orphée was the life I. In 1954, Glass traveled to Paris, where he encountered the films of Jean Cocteau, which made a lasting impression on him. In Chicago, he discovered the serialism of Anton Webern and composed a twelve-tone string trio. At the age of 15, he entered an accelerated college program at the University of Chicago where he studied mathematics and philosophy. He studied the flute as a child at the university-preparatory school of the Peabody Institute. Glass cites Schubert's work as a "big influence" growing up.
Glass built a sizable record collection from the unsold records in his father's store, including modern classical music such as Hindemith, Bartók, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and Western classical music including Beethoven's string quartets and Schubert's B ♭ Piano Trio. : 17 His store soon developed a reputation as Baltimore's leading source of modern music. The elder Glass promoted both new recordings and a wide selection of composers to his customers, sometimes convincing them to try something new by allowing them to return records they didn't like. I caught on to this very early, and I would go and listen with him. Typically he would come home and have dinner, and then sit in his armchair and listen to music until almost midnight. My father was self-taught, but he ended up having a very refined and rich knowledge of classical, chamber, and contemporary music. This openness to modern sounds affected Glass at an early age: Glass spent many hours listening to them, developing his knowledge and taste in music.
Glass's father often received promotional copies of new recordings at his music store. He learned his family was also related to Al Jolson. His cousin Cevia was a classical pianist, while others had been in vaudeville. Glass developed his appreciation of music from his father, discovering later his father's side of the family had many musicians. : 15 His sister, Sheppie, would later do similar work as an active member of the International Rescue Committee. : 14 She developed a plan to help them learn English and develop skills so they could find work. In his memoir, Glass recalls that at the end of World War II his mother aided Jewish Holocaust survivors, inviting recent arrivals to America to stay at their home until they could find a job and a place to live. His father owned a record store and his mother was a librarian. His family were Lithuanian-Jewish emigrants. Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ida (née Gouline) and Benjamin Charles Glass. See also: List of compositions by Philip Glass 1937–1964: Beginnings, early education and influences