thirteen ways

(Above, photos of Steve Reich working with 8bb-ers on the day of Double Sextet’s premiere in Richmond, VA)

You can now listen to an excerpt of Double Sextet by Steve Reich if you click here.

Here are some highlights from the coverage that Reich’s Double Sextet Pulitzer win has received, geared specifically towards articles that mention 8bb:

• Fresh Air with Terry Gross mentioned the Pulitzer win and played an excerpt from a performance
• Performance Today has a full performance of the work as well as an interview with Steve Reich
• LA Times mention 8bb in their articles about the Pulitzers
• The LA Times, OC Register, Letter V, New Music Box, Washington Post, WFMT, Sequenza 21 blogs all mention the win and 8bb’s role
• University of Richmond, our wonderful home-away-from-home, has a piece that includes quotes from the University’s President, Edward Ayers, and the Modlin Center’s Director, Kathy Panoff.
• Tom Service of The Guardian newspaper in London (my fave news publication!) has a piece on his blog about the work:

“As you can hear from the last seven minutes or so of Eighth Blackbird’s performance (the ensemble who commissioned the piece), Double Sextet has the pulsating momentum Reich fans are familiar with, but a greater level of dissonance and a wider expressive range than pieces like Drumming, Six Pianos, or even his 1985 Sextet. Unlike John Adams – some of whose recent music, for me, has atrophied into superficial grandiloquence when he’s tried to use a bigger harmonic palette – Reich’s use of a chromatic as well as consonant chords hasn’t come at the expense of his music’s immediacy or energy. What I’m saying is: I like the sound that Double Sextet makes, and I’m glad that the Steve Reich of today is getting the praise his work merits, and not just a slew of lifetime achievement gongs for his earlier, epoch-making pieces. Here’s to the Double Sextet – and to hearing it in London, I hope, soon.” [We hope so too, Tom!]

• Boosey and Hawkes has an article about the win
• Predictably (and wonderfully), Reich’s Wikipedia entry has already been updated with news of the win!
• People are even tweeting about it – what a strange, new world
• Click here for the complete press release from our New York publicists, 21C Media Group.