Celebrations of Steve Reich's 75th year continue with The Reich Effect, a five-day festival presented by the Cork Opera House and taking place there and at a number of other venues across Cork City, Ireland, starting today and running through Sunday, July 31. The composer will participate in a number of events at the festival, which also includes performance the Irish premiere of his latest piece, WTC 9/11, performed by Kronos Quartet.

The Irish Times spoke with the composer for a feature article about the festival and his profound impact on the musical landscape over more than four decades. "The influence of Reich and his ensemble on contemporary music is layered into almost every genre," writes the Times's Belinda McKeon. "His minimalist innovations have certainly gone far beyond the confines of classical composition." Several of his works have "done much to shape jazz and electronic music, but you’ll hear their traces also in rock, pop, hip hop and techno," she asserts. "In fact, sometimes it seems possible to hear the influence on Reich of sounds that are not even music; his architectures of the pattern and the pulse seem discernible, sometimes, in the harmonies and dissonances of daily life, in the percussions and suspensions of the street." Read the extensive article at irishtimes.com.

The Reich Effect begins tonight with a film screening at the Opera House of Phase to Face, the documentary that explores Reich's extensive career, from early analogue tapes to his 2009 piece 2x5. The screening will be followed by a public conversation between the composer and John Kelly.

The festival gets into full swing on Thursday with three scheduled events, a highlight of which is the all-Reich program from Kronos Quartet at the Cork Opera House. The longtime Reich collaborators will perform all three of the string quartets the composer has written for them, including, most recently, WTC 9/11, the focus of his forthcoming Nonesuch CD, here in its Irish premiere; Triple Quartet; and Different Trains; as well as excerpts from The Cave.

The Half Moon will host Kaleidoscope: A Night of Music, a program curated by Kate Ellis and Clíodhna Ryan and featuring some of Ireland’s top musicians performing works that influenced and inspired Steve Reich, from Bach and Stravinsky to John Zorn and Kevin Volans. The event will be followed by a set from DJ Donald Dineen.

Counterpoint, featuring a specially commissioned dance choreographed by David Bolger, artistic director of CoisCéim Dance Theatre, will take place at The Firkin Crane. The all-Reich program, including New York Counterpoint, Vermont Counterpoint, Electric Counterpoint, and Cello Counterpoint, will feature performers Carolyn Goodwin (soprano saxophone), Crash Ensemble member Kate Ellis (cello), Niwel Tsumbu (guitar), and Fiona Kelly (flute).

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Friday will also see three Reich Effect events. There is the Reich Remix Club taking place at The Pavilion Club. Percussion is the focus of the program at the Cork Opera House Friday night, with part one of Reich's iconic Drumming at its core; also on the program are his Music for Pieces of Wood and Six Marimbas, as well as a choreographed performance of his Clapping Music.

At City Hall, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra explores "the Reich effect" at work in composers of a new generation, like Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós, and Nico Muhly, and performs Reich's own Eight Lines. Sveinsson spoke with the Irish Times magazine about his piece and its inclusion in the festival. You can read the article at irishtimes.com.

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Another three events take place on Saturday. At the Savoy Theatre Club, the four-person Danish collective Efterklang will join Icelandic composer and conductor Daníel Bjarnason and their nine-piece Messing Orchestra. Efterklang's Casper Clausen, a long-time fan of Reich, cites him as a large influence on the music he creates with his group.

At the Cork Opera House, the London Sinfonietta and Synergy Vocals come together to perform Reich’s seminal Music for 18 Musicians.

Over at the Firkin Crane that night, a program titled Phases includes four pieces by Reich: Come Out, Piano Phase, Clapping Music, and Violin Phase.

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Closing out the five-day festival on Sunday are two Reich Effect programs. Icelandic musician/composer/producer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who cites Reich's work as a great influence, joins the Iskra String Quartet in concert at Triskel Christchurch. “The first pieces I heard were the tape pieces Different Trains and Come Out," Jóhannsson tells today's Irish Times. "I was fascinated by his use of found recordings and his use of process and how the slow process becomes the composition. Hearing those pieces a long time ago was quite exciting and definitely an influence on me when I started composing myself.”

And for the festival's culminating event, Ireland’s foremost contemporary music ensemble, Crash Ensemble, who can be heard on composer Donnacha Dennehy's Nonesuch debut album, Grá agus Bás, is joined by singer Íarla Ó Lionáird, also featured on that album, and Gavin Friday, for a concert at Cork Opera House. The program includes Dennehy's Grá agus Bás, featuring Ó Lionáird; Frederic Rzewski's Coming Together, featuring Gavin Friday; and two recent works by Reich that were paired on his 2010 album, the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece Double Sextet and 2x5, both receiving their Irish premieres and which, with WTC 9/11, make for "a trio of works demonstrating Reich’s lasting relevance," says the Irish Times.

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For all the details on the events of the Reich Effect, visit corkoperahouse.ie. To peruse the Steve Reich Nonesuch catalog, head to the Nonesuch Store now.