LA Phil Green Umbrella Series Presents All-Reich Concert

The second LA Phil Green Umbrella 2011/12 season concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall focuses on the music of one of America's greatest living composers, Steve Reich, Tuesday, January 17, at 8 pm. In addition to Reich, the program also features Bang on a Can All Stars, San Diego-based red fish blue fish and percussionist David Cossin. The Reich works presented include Clapping Music with the composer joining Cossin for the performance, a new video-enhanced arrangement of his early work Piano Phase, the West Coast premiere of the double-rock quintet, 2 x 5, and the classic and monumental Music for 18 Musicians.

Remaining concerts for the 2011/12 Green Umbrella series are: conductor Reinbert de Leeuw leading the LA Phil New Music Group in a Louis Andriessen-focused program featuring violinist Monica Germino and soprano Cristina Zavalloni (February 28, 2012); LA Phil Creative Chair John Adams leading the New Music Group in a program featuring the world premiere of the LA Phil-commissioned Livre des Sauvages for percussion and ensemble by Oscar Bettison (April 10, 2012); and LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel leading the New Music Group and the Foundry Steel Pan Ensemble in a program featuring the world premiere of LA Phil Principal Timpanist Joseph Pereira's LA Phil-commissioned Percussion Concerto with soloist Colin Currie (May 8, 2012).

Formed by the Bang on a Can Festival in New York, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today's most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Recent project highlights include the world premiere, performances, and recording of Steve Reich's 2x5 including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, for its 25th birthday, Bang on a Can is providing fans with a free download of its new double album on Cantaloupe Music during the first 25 days of January in exchange for a Bang on a Can memory: www.bangonacan25.org.

Founded 15 years ago by Steven Schick, the San Diego-based ensemble performs, records, and premieres works from the last 85 years of western percussion's rich history. The group works regularly with living composers from every continent. Recent projects include a world premiere of a Roger Reynolds' Sanctuary and the American premiere of James Dillon's epic Nine Rivers cycle with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). In the summer of 2011, red fish blue fish collaborated with George Crumb, Dawn Upshaw, and Peter Sellars to premiere the staged version of The Winds of Destiny. Eighth Blackbird invited red fish blue fish to join them in performances of works by American icons such as John Cage and Steve Reich at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. 

Steve Reich's music has been influential to composers and mainstream musicians all over the world. He is a leading pioneer of Minimalism, having in his youth broken away from the "establishment" that was serialism. His music is known for steady pulse, repetition, and a fascination with canons; it combines rigorous structures with propulsive rhythms and seductive instrumental color. It also embraces harmonies of non-Western and American vernacular music (especially jazz). His studies have included the Gamelan, African drumming (at the University of Ghana), and traditional forms of chanting the Hebrew scriptures. Different Trains and Music for 18 Musicians have each earned him GRAMMY awards, and his "documentary video opera" works-The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot-have pushed the boundaries of the operatic medium. Over the years his music has significantly grown both in expanded harmonies and instrumentation, resulting in a Pulitzer Prize for his 2007 composition, Double Sextet. Reich's music has been performed by major orchestras and ensembles around the world, including the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; London, San Francisco, Boston, and BBC symphony orchestras; London Sinfonietta; Kronos Quartet; Ensemble Modern; Ensemble Intercontemporain; Bang on a Can All-Stars; and eighth blackbird. Several noted choreographers have created dances to his music, such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylían, Jerome Robbins, Wayne McGregor, and Christopher Wheeldon.

Complete Program:
REICH Clapping Music
REICH Piano Phase/Video Phase
REICH 2x5 (West Coast premiere)
REICH Music for 18 Musicians

An Upbeat Live pre-concert event takes place in Walt Disney Concert Hall's BP Hall one hour prior to the concert, and is free to all ticket holders. Veronika Krausas, composer and Professor at Thornton School of Music at USC, hosts.

WHO: BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS
red fish blue fish
STEVE REICH, composer/performer
DAVID COSSIN, percussion

For full artist biographies, please visit: www.laphil.com

WHEN: Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at 8 PM

WHERE: Walt Disney CONCERT HALL
111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

HOW TO
PURCHASE: Subscriptions and single tickets for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 2011/12 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall are currently available. To purchase, please visit LAPhil.com, the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office or any Ticketmaster outlet. To order by phone with credit card, please call the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office at 323.850.2000, or Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000. For more information, please call 323.850.2000.

To post a comment, you must register and login.