Steve Reich
Press: “America’s greatest living composer” — The Village Voice
“the most original musical thinker of our time” — The New Yorker
“among the great composers of the century” — The New York Times
“There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them.” — The Guardian (London).
Musical maverick: From his early taped speech pieces It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and ComeOut (1966) to the digital video opera Three Tales (2002), Reich’s path has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz.
Reich’s 1988 piece, DifferentTrains, in which speech recordings generate the musical material for musical instruments, was hailed by The New York Times as “a work of such astonishing originality that breakthrough seems the only possible description... (It) possesses an absolutely harrowing emotional impact.”
Awards: 1990 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for DifferentTrains as recorded by the Kronos Quartet on the Nonesuch label; 1999 Grammy award for Music for 18 Musicians, also on the Nonesuch label; In 2000, Musical America named Reich Composer of the Year; WQXR Gramophone American Award (2006) for You Are (Variations)
Beyond music: Several noted choreographers — including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jerome Robbins for the New York City Ballet, Eliot Feld and Alvin Ailey — have created dances to his music.
On disc: Reich’s latest recording features the Los Angeles Master Chorale's You Are (Variations) premiere at Disney Hall in October 2004 with Grant Gershon conducting, and Cello Counterpoint (2003) performed by Maya Beiser.
Web site: www.stevereich.com
Master Chorale concerts
shine | 70th birthday tribute
Sunday, January 28, 2007
dare | You Are (Variations) premiere
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Recordings
Our new CD of Steve Reich's music includes the You Are (Variations) premiere at Disney Hall in October 2004 with Grant Gershon conducting, and Cello Counterpoint (2003) performed by Maya Beiser. "With You Are, the Master Chorale got a masterpiece." — Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26, 2004
more recordings