Beach Glass: Composer to play in Central California for Labor Day

You could circle the globe to keep up with Philip Glass events this year.

First, there was his 75th birthday celebration which, technically, won’t end until his birth date of Jan. 31. Last January, he debuted his Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York; next January, his new opera “The Perfect American,” about the death of Walt Disney, is to premiere in Madrid.

In between there’s a lot more, including an appearance this weekend on the Central California coast during a two-day version of his longer Days and Nights Festival. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Glass is to participate in a Q&A; with director Godfrey Reggio before an outdoor screening of his 1982 film “Koyaanisqatsi” at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Then he’s to appear in a duet concert with kora (an instrument described as a Gambian harp) musician Foday Musa Suso at the Sunset Center in Carmel starting at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets to the screening cost $30 and may be purchased online or by calling (831) 667-2574; tickets to the concert cost $50 to $75 and may be purchased online or by calling (831) 620-2048.

Glass has picked Big Sur as the site for a planned center for the arts, science and the environment that will bear his name. Last year’s festival lasted two weeks and served as a “sample of the work intended for the center,” he said in a statement. The full festival is scheduled to return in 2013.

And there are other Glass events this fall on each coast. “Einstein on the Beach,” hailed as his most famous opera, will be performed from Sept. 14-23 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City and Oct. 26-28 at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley.