It was thirty-five years ago today that Kronos Quartet gave the world premiere performance of Steve Reich’s Different Trains at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. To mark the occasion, Reich’s publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, has published a new video, in which he discusses the process behind composing this piece for string quartet and tape. Reich used carefully chosen speech recordings to shape the musical material for the score, evoking his American childhood during World War II while also addressing the Holocaust. The 1989 first recording of Different Trains, performed by Kronos, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition.

Composer Steve Reich talks about creating his iconic 1965 tape piece It's Gonna Rain in a new video from his publisher Boosey & Hawkes. That year, Reich recorded Pentecostal preacher Brother Walter preaching on Noah and the Flood in San Francisco, then aligned two Wollensak tape recorders that gradually fell out of sync, eventually creating contrapuntal lines from the recording. Reich's first major phasing work, it would become a landmark piece.

Congratulations to Julia Bullock and Steve Reich, who have each won an Opus Klassik award in Germany for their 2022 Nonesuch albums: Bullock as Breakout Artist of the Year for her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark, and Reich in the Symphonic Recording of the Year category for Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Susanna Mälkki. The awards ceremony will take place at the Konzerthaus in Berlin on October 8, televised in Germany by ZDF.

Steve Reich was on CBC's Q to talk with host Tom Power about his early musical influences, like Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis; his own seminal works Clapping Music, Come Out, Drumming, Different Trains, and Music for 18 Musicians; and a new generation of composers exciting him now, including Caroline Shaw and Nico Muhly. You can hear their conversation here.

The first recording of Steve Reich’s Runner and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki, released on CD and digitally on Nonesuch Records in September, is now available on vinyl. The New York Times calls Runner "a calmly luminous orchestral piece with the pulsating, propulsive rhythms that animate much of Mr. Reich’s music." The San Francisco Chronicle says that Music for Ensemble and Orchestra "is a beautiful and dramatically charged masterpiece, but its impact goes even further than that."

Steve Reich’s 1988 piece Different Trains is the subject of this week's episode of BBC Radio 3's The Listening Service. Host Tom Service shares music from Kronos Quartet's 1988 Nonesuch recording of the piece, which won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition, and talks with author/journalist Jonathan Freedland about creating such art that addresses the Holocaust. You can hear the episode here.

Steve Reich was on WNYC's New Sounds to talk with host John Schaefer about the newly released first recording of his pieces Runner and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Susanna Mälkki, and his new piece, Traveler’s Prayer, which will be given its US premiere performance by Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals in an all-Reich program at Carnegie Hall tonight, paired with Tehillim and Music for 18 Musicians. You can hear the episode, which also includes Makaya McCraven's "So Ubuji," from his new album, In These Times, in a showcase of new October releases, here.

The first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki, are out now digitally and on CD; vinyl is due December 2. The New York Times calls Runner “a calmly luminous orchestral piece with the pulsating, propulsive rhythms that animate much of Mr. Reich’s music.” The San Francisco Chronicle says that Music for Ensemble and Orchestra “is a beautiful and dramatically charged masterpiece, but its impact goes even further than that.”

The first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, released in June on CD/digital, is now available on vinyl. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3). "Reminiscent of his earliest work," says the Financial Times, "it is very beautiful." You can take a look inside the vinyl in an unboxing video here.

Nonesuch Records releases the first recordings of Steve Reich’s Runner (2016) and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018), performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Susanna Mälkki, available digitally and on CD on September 30, 2022; a vinyl LP version will be released on December 2. The New York Times calls Runner “a calmly luminous orchestral piece with the pulsating, propulsive rhythms that animate much of Mr. Reich’s music.” The San Francisco Chronicle says that Music for Ensemble and Orchestra “is a beautiful and dramatically charged masterpiece, but its impact goes even further than that.” The album track Runner: I. Sixteenths can be heard here.

Nonesuch Records releases the first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, on CD and digital today, with the vinyl due August 5. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3). A video of the composer talking about Reich/Richter may be seen here.

Nonesuch Records releases the first recording of Steve Reich’s Reich/Richter, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conducted by George Jackson, on June 10, 2022, with the vinyl due August 5. The composition was originally written to be performed with German visual artist Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz’s film Moving Picture (946-3). Album preorders are available here now. A video of the composer talking about Reich/Richter may be seen here.