In 2026, Steve Reich celebrates his 90th birthday. In 2027, it will be Philip Glass’. Two figures in the history of contemporary classical music who have redefined the landscape holistically. Two composers who have revolutionised how music was conceived and

Steve Reich is a monument of contemporary classical music. He needs no introduction, particularly as he celebrates his 90th birthday this year. One of the founding fathers of American minimalism — alongside Philip Glass, who coincidentally celebrates his 90th in

On 3 October 2026, the American composer Steve Reich, best known as a pioneer of minimal music, turns 90! Birthday celebrations are well underway for a composer whose looping patterns and insistent pulses transformed much of the musical landscape of

Minimalism as a musical genre originated in the USA in the 1960s. It involves stripping music down to its bare essentials, to focus on pure sonic power, pulse and the internal processes of the music, without narrative or a defined

Working on tape-based techniques of looping and phasing by using recordings of fragments of speech, Steve Reich created a compositional process involving structures of minimalist art and musical technique. Simultaneously, Beryl Korot was working along very similar lines in the

“All great music is contemporary” On 18 January 1973, Michael Tilson Thomas introduced Four Organs, scored for four Hammond organs and maracas by aspiring composer Steve Reich to New York audiences. Scheduled alongside music by Mozart, Bartók and Liszt, audience

Music for 18 Musicians (modular version): Section VII From Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians (2015) Released by Harmonia Mundi Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (modular version): Section VII Making its harmonia mundi début, New York-based Ensemble Signal performs