Steve Reich in Conversation

“Greatest living composer;” “most original musical thinker of our time;” “can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history…” Steve Reich is normally described in superlatives such as these. From his early compositions in taped speech It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his digital video opera Three Tales (2002, with video artist Beryl Korot), Reich has evolved a distinctive style marked by simple melodies and pronounced rhythm, repetition, and variation. His music has sources in the Western Classical tradition but also in non-Western and vernacular structures, harmonies, and rhythms. His work has been performed widely and he has received numerous commissions from prestigious institutions. Among other distinctions, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Commandeur de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2009, for Double Sextet. Reich will speak about his work and play samples from his oeuvre, then Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design, will join him in a conversation.

Audience
Free and open to the public.

Contact
[email protected]/(617) 496-2414
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