PHASE | PATTERN | PULSE to Premiere for Steve Reich's 90th at Schwarzman Centre
The Ligeti Quartet will perform Different Trains in the Sohmen Concert Hall as part of the celebration.
The new Schwarzman Centre in Oxford will present the Steve Reich In Focus series, continuing its experimentation in the fast-developing field of immersive sound, with the premiere of Phase | Pattern | Pulse, a completely new way to experience the work of Steve Reich, created by spatial audio designers Loss><Gain and the Colin Currie Group from 25 September to 11 October 2026.
Running for three weeks in the Schwarzman Centre's state of the art Black Box, this will be a unique way of experiencing the richness, complexity and beauty of Reich's music. Across three distinct one-hour programmes, Phase | Pattern | Pulse offers a series of 360° immersive audio experiences that explore the shifting patterns of Reich's major works, including the phasing repetition of Drumming, the subtle shifts, interlocking figures and harmonies of the three Sextets, and the mesmeric journey of Music for 18 Musicians, to reveal the inner structures of each piece in fresh detail.
Alongside this, on Tuesday 6 October 2026, the Ligeti Quartet will perform one of Reich's most celebrated works, Different Trains, which earned the composer a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition in 1989. Inspired by the train journeys Reich took as a child across the United States during the Second World War, the composition features a remastered version of the tape track presenting fragments of speech from train conductors, Holocaust survivors and Reich's governess in a 180° d&b Soundscape, interwoven with live strings to create a haunting sonic tapestry for this unique performance in the Sohmen Concert Hall.
These events are part of a nationwide celebration of the 90th birthday of Steve Reich (b. 3 October 1936) this autumn, including performances at the Southbank Centre and Barbican Centre in London, the Proms, and events at the Glasshouse in Gateshead and at Symphony Hall Birmingham.
Phase | Pattern | Pulse has been commissioned and co-produced by the Cultural Programme at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.
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