“Steve Reich is considered to be one of the greatest American composers of all time,” Tom Power, host of CBC’s Q, says of his guest. “He’s influenced the likes of David Bowie, Radiohead, and Björk … His work gets studied and analyzed and performed at the highest levels of academia. But when you get him on the line on Zoom, he’s a really down-to-earth, lovely guy, and you get the feeling he wants you to understand and listen to his music no matter who you are.” They talk 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 via Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

Steve Reich joins Russell Hartenberger virtually for a semi-live performance of his Clapping Music at Meridian Arts Centre’s George Weston Recital Hall in North York, Ontario, on Saturday. In a presentation conceived and directed by Atom Egoyan, Hartenberger performs his part live to the composer’s previously filmed performance of his part. Reich and Hartenberger can be heard recording the piece fully live on the Reich album Early Works released on Nonesuch in 1987. Also on Saturday's program is the Canadian premiere of Reich/Richter by Soundstreams Canada—the first recording of the piece was released on Nonesuch last year, performed by Ensemble intercontemporain and conductor George Jackson—and a performance of Drumming by TorQ Percussion Quartet and NEXUS, which celebrates its 50th anniversary and whose members Hartenberger, Bob Becker, and Gary Kvistad can be heard on the 1987 Nonesuch recording of the piece.