#4311: Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians, New Sounds Live 2019
From the New Sounds Live Concerts, recorded in October 2019 at Brookfield Place, Ensemble Signal and Brad Lubman perform Steve Reich’s masterwork Music for 18 Musicians.
This influential pulse-driven work involves a rotating cast of players, and recently, no one has performed it quite like Ensemble Signal, the supergroup of independent new music artists who have worked closely with one another and with music director Brad Lubman over the last decade. The group appears in flexible configurations of 1-30+ players, who combine the intimacy of chamber music with the power of a compact orchestra.
Steve Reich projects are a special focus for Ensemble Signal. In fact, the ensemble includes many young players who have grown up listening to Reich’s work, as we well as the music it influenced – from pop and rock to minimalist jazz and classical. Now that the Steve Reich Ensemble no longer performs, Ensemble Signal is something of the new standard bearer for his music, having worked closely with the composer and premiered Reich’s works – most recently “Runner,” and “Reich/Richter,” and performed many of his other works in their long-term, multi-year commitment to his music.
Music for 18 Musicians is "a magical shifting masterpiece of American minimalism where winds, strings, pianos, and percussion meld in ever-changing combinations, propelled by an irresistible pulsation." (Havlik, 2008) And rarely has it been more magical than the supercharged performance given by Ensemble Signal in the Winter Garden of Brookfield Place in mid-October of 2019, where the composer was in attendance, along with a packed house. Hear as much of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians performed by Ensemble Signal, as time allows.
Program #4311: From NS Live: Music for 18 Musicians (First aired 12/18/2019)
ARTIST: Ensemble Signal, Brad Lubman conductor
WORK: Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, 10/15/19
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: signalensemble.org
Ensemble Signal:
Brad Lubman, Music Director
Paul Coleman, Sound Director
Courtney Orlando, Violin
Lauren Radnofsky, Cello
Ken Thomson, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Adrián Sandí, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
David Friend, Piano 1
Oliver Hagen, Piano 2
Ning Yu, Piano 3
Lisa Moore, Piano 4
Matt Evans, Vibraphone, PIano
Carson Moody, Marimba 1
Bill Solomon, Marimba 2
Amy Garapic, Marimba 3
Brad Lubman, Marimba
Clara Warnaar, Xylophone 1
Nick Tolle, Xylophone 2, Marimba
Adam Maalouf, Maracas
Sarah Brailey, Voice 1
Martha Cluver, Voice 2
Melissa Hughes, Voice 3
Kirsten Sollek, Voice 4
