Celebrating minimalist composer Steve Reich

This is Fresh Air. I'm David B and Cooley Composer Steve Reich celebrates his ninetieth birthday tomorrow, october third. Often called one of the fathers of minimalist music, Reich created a vocabulary that has influenced nearly every form of music. Classical, electronic, jazz, and pop. Musical venues and performers around the world are marking the occasion.

And at eighty nine, Reich still is making new music. Here's audio from the world premiere of his latest piece call In All Your Ways, unveiled and recorded at the Edinburgh International Festival. His composition is performed by the Colin Curry group. It's an excerpt from the world premiere of the brand new composition by Steve Reich called In All Your Ways. It was performed by the Colin Curry group at the Edinburgh International Festival.

We'll hear more of this piece at the end of the show. Today on Fresh Air, to celebrate the ninetieth birthday of Steve Reich, we'd like to offer our own retrospective of his career. Let's start with a nineteen ninety nine interview with Terry Gross. Terry asked him about one of his early compositions, recorded in nineteen sixty five, called It's going to rain.

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