He’s the Brisbane musician who has forged a musical partnership with the man some regard as the world’s greatest living composer. Tenzin Choegyal is a Tibetan refugee who lives at The Gap and has, from his base there, become a globetrotting world music star and advocate for Tibet.
He has performed for the Dalai Lama and is a close friend and collaborator with Philip Glass, the seminal American composer and pianist known for developing “music with repetitive structures”, commonly known as minimalism. A Juilliard graduate, Glass revolutionised opera, film scores and instrumental music, creating popular works such as Einstein on the Beach and soundtracking movie The Hours.
Choegyal is a Grammy-nominated Tibetan-Australian musician who won the Best World Music award at the recent 2026 Queensland Music Awards for his album Snow Flower. The award honours the album’s blend of traditional Tibetan sounds with modern production, featuring collaborations with artists such as Matt Corby.
Choegyal and Glass formed a friendship when Glass invited him to perform at the annual Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, where Choegyal has become a regular guest artist over the years. He and Glass have collaborated on numerous occasions.
And the latest fruit of that collaboration is the album Be the Sky, released on all streaming platforms, CD and vinyl via Orange Mountain Music.
Be the Sky features original works from Choegyal and Glass’s two-decade collaboration, with Glass performing on the title track. The seven-track recording also spotlights performances by the Grammy Award-winning Scorchio Quartet, actress Saori Tsukada (poetry recitation), Alex Ring Gray (piano and saxophones) and refugee children from the Tibetan Children’s Village where Choegyal was raised.
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Tenzin Choegyal
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Centred on Tibetan poetry, including original works and pre-existing texts by the disciple, yogi and spiritual poet Milarepa, as well as prayers by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the album honours Tibetan spirituality, reflects on life in exile and pays tribute to elders and ancestors. The album also features artwork attributed to Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol, who recently exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“Be the Sky captures moments of quiet joy, born from music-making with dear friends,” Choegyal says. “Among many emotions, the music carries me to places I can’t physically go – like Tibet. Yet Tibet resides within me. This album is a meditation, a return and a way to stay connected – a joy in honouring the wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and our elders.”
Choegyal is a regular collaborator with artists in the Western tradition and says he pinches himself when he gets to play with them. His association with Glass is particularly enriching and fruitful.
“I come from this nomadic background as a little kid from the foothills of the Himalayas,” Choegyal says. “I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would have these experiences.”
The album is hauntingly beautiful with Choegyal playing the dranyen (Tibetan lute) and lingbu (flute) with his hauntingly plaintive vocals evoking the love and longing for his homeland. Glass’s influence also pervades the album.
“We launched the album at a listening party at Tibet House in New York last November and also at a concert in upstate New York,” Choegyal says. “Philip is super happy with the album.”
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Some of the recordings happened at Choegyal’s family home at The Gap, with other music recorded at Glass’s home studio and a recording studio in Brooklyn.
Opening the album, Snowy Mountains – Gangri combines traditional Tibetan instrumentation with Glass’s contemporary classical orchestration, offering a prayerful meditation on devotion and resilience.
An emotional homecoming for Choegyal, the piece features the voices of more than 100 children from the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamshala, where he spent his formative years. Vocals by Choegyal and the children are accompanied by Alex Ring Gray on piano and the Scorchio Quartet on strings and reflect reverence for the Dalai Lama.
That track had its debut performance at the 2025 Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall.
The track Until Space Remains follows, with one of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s favourite Lama’s favourite verses by Shantideva: “For as long as space remains, As long as sentient beings remain, Until then may I too remain To dispel the miseries of the world.”
Choegyal’s voice and vocalisations thread through the poem, accompanied by plucked melodies on the dranyen and supported by flowing string lines from Scorchio Quartet and cyclical piano texture by Gray in Glass’s classic minimalist style. The track offers a meditative reflection on compassion and cosmic presence.
River of Joy – Kyichu reflects on the pivotal historical moment when the Dalai Lama escaped Tibet after the Chinese occupation in 1959. This poignant piece honours his crossing of the Kyichu River, the last time he stood on Tibetan soil. Singing over Gray’s piano and Scorchio Quartet’s strings, Choegyal invokes memories of homeland, longing and loss, offering a moving tribute to place and spirit.
Track five, From a Single Thought, similarly meditates on ideas of identity, remembrance and how our actions influence the lives we live. Karmic Mandala acts as a musical map of spiritual experience, tracing the interconnectedness of actions and existence.
Closing the album, the title track Be the Sky unites Choegyal, Glass and Tsukada in a luminous expression of spiritual oneness. Glass’s signature piano style underpins Choegyal’s nomadic song and his translation of a song by Milarepa recited by Tsukada.
The closing lines speak directly to the heart of the album: “Take your own mind, Practice without any doubt or hesitation. If you are happy practicing with mind, Thoughts are the mind’s magical creations. Be the mind itself.”
Tenzin Choegyal next performs live in Brisbane at Infinite Space of Possibilities, a transcendent music experience where he joins forces with genre-defying Topology at the Topology Creative Hub, The Gap, May 9, 7pm.
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