Steve Reich will join the New York-based percussion quartet So Percussion on stage in a performance of the composer's 1972 work Clapping Music for an all-Reich program at Stanford University's Dinkelspiel Auditorium this Saturday. The program, presented by Stanford Lively Arts, features the US premiere of Reich's latest piece, Mallet Quartet—which premiered at the Palace of Arts in Budapest last month—and will cover 40 years of the composer's work, including Music for Pieces of Wood, Four Organs, Nagoya Marimbas, and Drumming Part I. Reich will participate in a pre-performance discussion, and So Percussion will be on hand for a discussion after the show.

Saturday's concert marks the culmination of a number of related events from the performers in the Stanford area this week. It all starts with a free So Percussion "Informance" performance and discussion at the Community School for Music and Arts in Mountain View this evening. On Thursday, Reich and his wife and collaborator Beryl Korot will participate in a free event at Stanford’s Pigott Theater as part of the "Art + Invention" speaker series. And on Friday, So Percussion will present a sold-out student matinee for local schoolchildren at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium.

San Jose Mercury News writer Andrew Gilbert spoke with Reich and members of So Percussion in a preview of this week's events. "If every composer's dream is for his or her music to be performed around the world," writes Gilbert, "Steve Reich has attained nirvana ... Even better than ubiquity though is an intimate connection with one's interpreters, which is what makes So Percussion's residency at Stanford Lively Arts such a welcome and rare opportunity for immersion in Reich's rhythmical realm." Read the complete article at mercurynews.com.

For more information on Saturday's concert and all the related events, visit livelyarts.stanford.edu.