Soundstreams celebrates American composer Steve Reich’s 86th birthday with a special one-night event, STEVE REICH: Now & Then. The evening’s live program includes Reich’s famous piece Drumming, featuring legendary percussion ensemble NEXUS (celebrating their 50th anniversary), and TorQ Percussion Quartet. Also included is the Canadian premiere of a work for live chamber orchestra and film: Moving Picture (946-3) is a film by Gerhard Richter & Corinna Belz, with music (Reich/Richter) by Steve Reich, and montage by Rudi Heinen. The night also includes a new version of Reich’s legendary piece Clapping Music, conceived and directed by filmmaker Atom Egoyan, featuring Steve Reich on film and Russell Hartenberger in live performance, shot by director of photography Cam Davis. 

This program opens with A Fanfare for Spaces Between Time, a Soundstreams 40th anniversary fanfare by composer and turntablist SlowPitchSound (Cheldon Paterson), inspired by Stravinsky’s Fanfare for a New Theatre, written for the opening of Lincoln Centre in 1964, and the work that opened Soundstreams’ first season in June 1982.

While Soundstreams exists to foster the legacy of excellence in Canadian music, they have always done so in an international context. Steve Reich is considered to be “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times). The iconic composer has a special connection with Soundstreams, and with Toronto: two of members of NEXUS are also founding members of the Steve Reich Ensemble, and this is Soundstreams’ fourth presentation of work by Reich.

STEVE REICH: Now & Then is presented by Soundstreams in partnership with TO Live. Moving Picture (946-3) Copyright Gerhard Richter and Corinna Belz