Conversations

By: Steve Reich

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill, Johnny Heller, Derek Perkins, James Lurie, Jason Culp, Joel Froomkin, Cindy Kay, Billie Fulford-Brown, Natasha Soudek

A surprising, enlightening series of conversations that shed new light on the music and career of “our greatest living composer” (New York Times)

Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. As a leader of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger musicians, choreographers and visual artists. He has explored non-Western music and American vernacular music from jazz to rock, as well as groundbreaking music and video pieces. He toured the world with his own ensemble and his compositions are performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles.

Now Reich sits down with past collaborators, fellow composers and musicians as well as visual artists influenced by his work to reflect on his prolific career as a composer as well as the music that inspired him and that has been inspired by him, including:

David Lang
Brian Eno
Richard Serra
Michael Gordon
Michael Tilson Thomas
Russell Hartenberger
Robert Hurwitz
Stephen Sondheim
Jonny Greenwood
David Harrington
Elizabeth Lim-Dutton
David Robertson
Micaela Haslam
Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
Julia Wolfe
Nico Muhly
Beryl Korot
Colin Currie
Brad Lubman

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

A thrilling account of the life of composer Steve Reich!

In Conversations, Steve Reich thoroughly describes his calculated and incremental development from novice music composer into what New York Times Music Critic Richard Taruskin wrote: “a potent, and…very serious force for change…among the great composers of the century.”

Stunningly thoughtful!

Everything works. Nothing else like it that I know of. Extraordinary conversations among brilliant, caring, and knowledgeable people.