Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians at The Glasshouse | Preview
Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians comes to The Glasshouse Gateshead on 3 October 2026 as a centrepiece of the Steve Reich at 90 weekend.
Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians comes to The Glasshouse in Gateshead on Saturday 3 October 2026 as one of the centrepieces of the composer’s 90th-birthday festival weekend. The landmark work brings voices, strings, clarinets, pianos and percussion into a constantly shifting cycle of pulses and harmonies, creating one of Reich’s most immersive large-ensemble pieces.
The piece moves through a sequence of harmonic sections without breaking the underlying pulse, so the music can feel both static and constantly in motion. Live, the effect depends on precision and collective listening, with small instrumental cues guiding the ensemble from one section to the next.
Music for 18 Musicians at The Glasshouse
For many listeners this is Reich’s defining work, and hearing it within a weekend devoted to his music gives the performance extra weight. It also shows how the rhythmic ideas heard in smaller pieces expand when voices and a larger ensemble are added to the texture.
Event details
- Date: Saturday 3 October 2026
- Venue: The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead
Tickets and programme information are available through The Glasshouse’s official event page.
