Steve Reich is the featured composer at this weekend's cycle of the inaugural Salzburg Biennale, a new festival for contemporary music held each weekend in March in the birthplace of Mozart. The Reich events begin tonight with a performance by the Rosas dance company of choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase, featuring Reich's Piano Phase, Violin Phase, Come Out, and Clapping Music, at the Republic Theater.

On Friday, there will be an encore performance of de Keersmaeker's piece and, in a separate concert, a performance by the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik pairing Reich's Different Trains and Sextet with two works by Ligeti, at Universität Motzarteum.

On Saturday, members of Synergy Ensemble will perform Reich's Drumming at the Biennale, with Ictus Ensemble, while other members of the vocal group join the Askö & Schoenberg Ensembles for a performance of the piece at the Kunsthal Auditorium in Rotterdam, Netherlands, as part of a separate all-Reich program for the RedSound festival; also on the latter program is his Music for 18 Musicians.

To complete the circle, Music for 18 Musicians will be performed by the Synergy members in Salzburg with the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik in a Sunday morning concert; also on that program are Reich's Clapping Music, performed with the composer, and his City Life.

Interspersed with the Biennale's Reich concerts are performances by a traditional Balinese gamelan, Ensemble Taruna Mekar. This is meant to reflect the influence of gamelan music on the composer and his development of polyrhythmic counterpoint.

For information on all the festival's events, visit salzburgbiennale.at.