Born on October 3 in New York City, he grew up in California. He studied philosophy at Cornell University, graduating in 1957. He then studied composition with Hall Overton for two years before continuing his studies at the Juilliard School of Music with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti from 1958 to 1961. Reich received his M.A. in music in 1963 from Mills College, where he worked with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud. A scholarship from the Institute for International Education enabled him to spend the summer of 1970 at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in Accra, where he learned to play the drums. In 1973 and 1974, he devoted himself to the Balinese gamelan Semar Pegulingan and gamelan Gambang at the American Society for Eastern Arts in Seattle and Berkeley, California. From 1976 to 1977, he studied traditional Hebrew chanting in New York and Jerusalem.
In 1966, Steve Reich founded his own ensemble. Since 1971, Steve Reich and Musicians have been touring the world, performing to sold-out venues from Carnegie Hall to the Bottom Line Cabaret. The 1988 piece “Different Trains” marks a new compositional technique in Reich's work, rooted in pieces such as “It's Gonna Rain” (1965) and “Come Out” (1966). In this technique, the musical material for the instruments is developed from speech recordings.
Steve Reich has received numerous international awards and honors for his works. In 1990, Reich received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition. Reich was awarded another Grammy in 1999 for his piece “Music for 18 Musicians” (1974 to 1976). In 1994, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1995, he was accepted into the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. In 2000, he received the Montgomery Fellowship from Dartmouth College, the Regent's Lectureship at the University of California, Berkeley, and an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts. In 2006, he became a member of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and in 2007, he received the Chubb Fellowship at Yale University. In 2008, he was admitted to the Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he became Associate Composer at Casa da Música in Porto and received an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory. In 2016/17, Reich held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Reich's music has been performed by major orchestras and ensembles around the world. Several well-known choreographers, including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylían, Jerome Robbins, Wayne McGregor, and Christopher Wheeldon, have created dances to his music.
Awards (Selection)
2016 Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art
2014 Golden Lion, Venice Biennale
2013 Frontiers of Knowledge Award
2007 Polar-Music-Prize
2009 Pulitzer Prize
2006 Praemium Imperiale
2000 William Schuman Award
1999 Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et de Lettres
1986 Bessie Award
Compositions (Selection)
2016 Runner
2015 Pulse
2013 Quartet
2012 Radio Rewrite
2010 WTC 9/11 (Uraufführung an der Duke University)
2009 Mallet Quartet (Uraufführung in Budapest)
2008 2x5 (Uraufführung in Manchester)
2007 Double Sextet (Uraufführung im Modlin Center der University of Richmond, Virginia)
2006 Daniel Variations (Uraufführung im Londoner Barbican Centre)
2002 Three Tales (Videooper mit Beryl Korot)
1990-1993 The Cave (Video-Musiktheaterstück mit Beryl Korot)
1988 Different Trains
1974-1976 Music for 18 Musicians
1966 Come Out
1965 It’s Gonna
Filmography (Selection)
2009 Darmon, Eric (Regie): Phase to Face. Dokumentation
Bibliography (Selection)
2004 Sachse, Georg: Sprechmelodien, Mischklänge, Atemzüge: phonetische Aspekte im Vokalwerk Steve Reichs. Kassel: G. Bosse
2002 Reich, Steve; Hillier, Paul (Hrsg.): Writings on Music, 1965-2000. New York: Oxford University Press