Music of Steve Reich
November 28 & 29
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Avenue
More information

Last year around this time, cultural centers in Steve Reich's native New York were celebrating the composer's 70th birthday. Reich has been publishing music since 1963, and it is impossible to imagine the American musical landscape without him.

Bostonians have a chance to wish Reich a happy 71st. The New England Conservatory will present a series of concerts Wednesday and Thursday nights featuring highlights from Reich's career. Admission to these concerts is free, which means you shouldn't scrimp on the gift.

Reich is a musical minimalist whose interest in rhythm and repetition posed a challenge to the academic orthodoxy of twelve tone music. His best known works rely on the "phase shifting" that happens when you play identical sounds at different speeds. His music is both interesting and accessible. Reich is that rare breed: the composer admired by the concert hall crowd but enjoyed by everybody.

The scope of NEC's series is daunting: the composer's entire 40 year career. But artistic director Stephen Drury has made it easy for his audience, spreading the pieces around so that you can go to either night, or both, and still get a good idea of Reich's musical trajectory. If you miss tomorrow's performance of Piano Phase (1967), Reich's first piece for traditional instruments, you will still be able to catch Thursday's Violin Phase (1967), Reich's second such piece.

If you have to pick, Wednesday is the day to go. There's the mesmerizing Piano Phase, Reich's first attempt to translate his phasing trick -- originally used with tape loops -- to live instruments. And Different Trains (1988), a haunting meditation on chance and the Holocaust. But the real treat is Music for 18 Musicians (1976), which many regard as Reich's masterpiece. It's a work as iconic in postwar art as Frank Stella's stripes or the Helvetica typeface. Scored for a cello, violin, two clarinets, four pianos, three marimbas, two zylophones, a metallophone, maracas, and four women's voices, Music for 18 Musicians has a breathy pulse that is both seductive and aloof.

But, since both nights are free, there is no reason to choose one or the other. Thursday will feature Boston premieres of two works, City Life (1995) and Daniel Variations (2006), a piece dedicated to Daniel Pearl, the journalist murdered in Pakistan. Arrive in time to catch Drumming (1971), a piece for tuned percussion inspired by Balinese gamelan and Ghanean drumming.

Photo of Steve Reich from NEC promotional announcement