Steve Reich talks to The State of Things from NPR member station WUNC today about Kronos Quartet's premiere of his latest work, WTC 9/11, in an all-Reich program Saturday at Duke University, where Reich and Kronos are artists-in-residence this week. Saturday's concert includes all three quartets Reich has written for Kronos. The Quartet gives the NY premiere of WTC 9/11 in an all-Reich program at Carnegie Hall on April 30, with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Glenn Kotche, eighth blackbird, and So Percussion.
Steve Reich will be the guest on The State of Things from North Carolina NPR member station WUNC. Reich will speak with host Frank Stasio about the forthcoming premiere of his latest work, WTC 9/11, which Kronos Quartet will perform as part of an all-Reich program at Duke University's Page Auditorium this Saturday. Tune in to The State of Things today on 91.5 FM in Durham and streaming online at wunc.org starting at noon to hear the composer discuss these works.
Steve Reich and Kronos Quartet will be artists-in-residence at Duke in the days prior to Saturday's performance. Their residency features several public events that are free and open to the public, including a conversation with Reich and Kronos artistic director David Harrington at Durham's Pinhook Bar on Thursday; a discussion with the composer about his Pulitzer Prize-winning piece Double Sextet on Duke's East Campus Friday night; and an open rehearsal and discussion of Duke Ph.D candidate David K. Garner's new piece for Kronos Quartet, which will premiere at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall this May.
WTC 9/11 integrates a live quartet performance, quartets on tape, and pre-recorded voices of the air traffic controllers, firemen, and survivors of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Presented in three movements, the piece also incorporates recordings of liturgical chanting from the Jewish tradition of Shmira, a religious practice to guard the soul of a recently deceased body from the time of death to burial.
This new quartet is the third work Reich has written for string quartet, all three of which were written for and commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. The March 19 performance features all three quartets: WTC 9/11, Triple Quartet, and Different Trains, as well as music from The Cave, Reich’s 1993 opera.
For more information on this week's residency and concert, visit dukeperformances.duke.edu.
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Kronos Quartet will give the New York premiere of WTC 9/11 at Carnegie Hall on April 30 as part of an all-Reich concert celebrating the composer's 75th birthday year. Also on the program is the New York premiere of Reich's Mallet Quartet and 2x5, as well as a performance of Double Sextet. In addition to Kronos, the evening's performers include Bang on a Can All-Stars and Friends (Glenn Kotche among them), eighth blackbird, and So Percussion. For tickets, visit carnegiehall.org. You can hear Bang on a Can perform 2x5 and eighth blackbird doing Double Sextet in the original recording of each, released on Nonesuch last fall.
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A new 10-minute documentary produced by Steve Reich's publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, in honor of his 75th birthday, explores the composer's music in conversation with the Reich himself. In the film, he discusses his work through the example of several groundbreaking pieces from throughout his career, including It's Gonna Rain, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Different Trains, The Cave, and Sextet. Watch it now at boosey.com.
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For more tour information, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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