Steve Reich (1936) — Auction price
Steve Reich, full name Stephen Michael Reich, is an American minimalist composer.
Reich came from a Jewish family, graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, and pursued a parallel career in music education. At Mills College in Oakland, California, he earned a master's degree in composition.
In 1966, he founded his own ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, where he was free to experiment with the form of composition. One of the pioneers of minimalism, he composes music that is essentially tonal-modal and characterized by repetition, a steady pulse, and a clear structure. His innovations include the use of tape loops to create phased patterns.
Reich himself cites the works of Igor Stravinsky, Johann Sebastian Bach, jazz music, and the music of West Africa as sources of his inspiration.
