The First Presbyterian Church in Stamford, Connecticut, hosted an evening concert—in partnership with the Highland Green Foundation—to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Glass House, a historic site in neighboring New Canaan, in October 2024.

The Glass House was designed by American architect Philip Johnson as a personal weekend retreat and was built beginning in 1949. Featuring a brick floor and glass walls, the house was an early example of industrial materials used in home design and became one of Johnson’s best-known modern works. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 and opened to visitors a decade later after becoming a National Trust Historic Site. Today, the site collaborates with artists, and presents programming related to the built environment and contemporary culture, bringing together communities around a shared interest in art, architecture, and design.

The Glass House hosted several events to honor the historic home’s 75th anniversary this year, including the October concert at the First Presbyterian Church in Stamford. American architect Wallace K. Harrison designed the church with thousands of pieces of shimmering colored glass set into a 60-foot-tall nave with concrete ribs and a concrete shell. In 2018, the church received a grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places, a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to support needed repair works. Three years later, in 2021, it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its unique neo-expressionist modernist architecture.

Nicknamed the Fish Church for its unusual shape, the sanctuary provided a transformative venue for the October concert. “Performing in this historic landmark is a sensory experience on its own,” said Jenny Lin, a pianist who performed at the event. “The sanctuary’s stained-glass walls are so vibrant I felt I was walking through a gemstone, another world.”

Lin and fellow musicians Timo Andres and Aaron Diehl performed twelve piano compositions, called études, by famed American composer Philip Glass at the October concert. The musicians were selected “for their high level of technical accomplishment, wide range of musical backgrounds, and the depth of their interpretive skills,” said Glass.

Glass wrote twenty études from 1991 to 2012, organized into two collections. According to Glass, the first series of ten études “explore[s] a variety of tempi, textures, and piano techniques,” while the second represents “new adventures in harmony and structure.”

Here’s what two of the musicians had to say about the significance of the compositions and performing them in the sacred Fish Church (these responses have been condensed and edited lightly for clarity):

What is your relationship to Philip Glass's compositions? What is unique or special about the piano études and the specific études you played at the First Presbyterian Church in October?

Jenny Lin: Mr. Glass creates unique relationships between performers and music, between listeners and music, and between performers and listeners. His piano études, particularly Etudes 1, 2, 11, and 12, invite an immersive, almost meditative engagement. These compositions balance technical demands with moments of introspection, allowing the performer to explore emotional depth within the minimalist structure. These qualities certainly resonate within the physical space of the Fish Church. The glass-studded walls and angular structure echo the layered, evolving textures in Glass’s music.

Timo Andres: I think each of the 20 études is quite well-differentiated, which is part of what makes them compelling as a collection. However, I’ve always thought the last one stood apart in its language and rhetoric — it feels more stream-of-consciousness, less procedural, than any of the others. Philip has described No. 20 as “leaving the room and closing the door” — a gesture of finality, both understated and emphatic. I am always moved to play it.

Describe the sensory experience of playing this music at the First Presbyterian Church. What stood out most about the experience of being in the space itself?

Jenny Lin: The acoustics within the Fish Church are superb, allowing each note to resonate fully — a perfect match for the powerful nature of Glass’s music. It’s an ideal venue for the unique qualities of his études, which demand focus and provide a sense of journey that complements the architectural beauty of the Fish Church.

Timo Andres: Over the past decade, I’ve played Glass’s music in many spectacular and unique venues, but the Fish Church certainly stands apart. Playing music in an inspiring space, like playing a wonderful instrument, can inspire one’s performance in unexpected ways. Especially with the piano, which is such an orchestral instrument, the way sound interacts with a space is part of the performance.

I can’t say for certain how my performance was different from usual, but I remember letting the space do much of the work for me acoustically, letting the piano’s raw sound bounce around it rather than trying to control each minute detail of articulation and pedaling.