Steve Reich: The Desert Music at The Glasshouse | Preview
Steve Reich at 90 opens at The Glasshouse Gateshead on 2 October 2026 with The Desert Music, Clapping Music, Double Sextet and Runner.
The Glasshouse opens its Steve Reich at 90 weekend on Friday 2 October 2026 with a Sage One programme bringing together The Desert Music, Clapping Music, Double Sextet and Runner. Colin Currie conducts members of the Colin Currie Group and Royal Northern Sinfonia, setting up a night built around the pulse, repetition and rhythmic precision that define Reich’s music.
The programme moves from the stripped-back physicality of Clapping Music into the larger ensemble writing of Runner and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet. The Desert Music then expands the scale again, using words by William Carlos Williams across a work that shifts between speech, song and layered rhythmic patterns.
Steve Reich at 90 begins in Sage One
As the opening concert of the weekend, this is the clearest introduction to the range of Reich’s writing. The 7.30pm start also leaves room for the late-night Drumming Part 1 performance in Sage Two afterwards, making the first evening feel like a full festival programme rather than a single concert.
Event details
- Date: Friday 2 October 2026
- Time: 7.30pm
- Venue: Sage One, The Glasshouse, Gateshead
- Tickets: £5 to £52.50
Tickets and current information are available through The Glasshouse’s official event page.
