A Soloist Provides His Own Accompaniment

Minimalist composer Steve Reich. He's considered one of our foremost living composers. There's a new CD "Reich Remixed" (Nonesuch) a dance album in which American, British, and Japanese DJ's pay tribute to Reich, by sampling and reassembling his music. Reich will be the subject of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. And Reich's "Triple Quartet" written for and performed by the Kronos Quartet, will have its world premiere on May 22nd at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

The minimalist composer's new piece, Different Trains, contrasts Reich's childhood experiences crossing the country by rail to visit his divorced parents with the memories of Holocaust survivors' journey to concentration camps. The music incorporates recordings of several interviews into the orchestration.

Composer Steve Reich, one of the fathers of minimalist music, discusses the cross-cultural influences on his work from African drumming to Jewish cantorial singing. His latest composition is "Desert Music" which features the poems of William Carlos Williams.