Who

Reich is a minimalist composer favored by fans of classical and rock alike. His repetitive, pulsing rhythms and spoken word samples have influenced everyone from Brian Eno to prog rockers like King Crimson.

Backstory

Reich spent his youth shuttling between California and his native New York before attending Cornell and moving to the city, where he supported himself with odd jobs including driving a moving van with composer Philip Glass. (The two played a few joint concerts together, but eventually had a falling out.) Reich wrote his seminal work, "Music for 18 Musicians," in the mid-1970s, around the same time he formed his first ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians. Since then, he's composed dozens of works and toured all over the world, earning countless awards and acclaim. He's also composed several pieces with his wife, including Three Tales, about nuclear testing, the Hindenburg and cloning.

Of note

Although you'll never hear Reich's work on mainstream radio, his influence has been far-reaching. Once described by the Times as "our greatest living composer," Reich is particularly famous for his use of tape loops and phrasing, a technique he first explored with "It's Gonna Rain": the piece utilized a portion of a speech by Pentecostal preacher Brother Walter that played on two reel-to-reel recorders moving at different speeds. He took it even further with the 13-minute "Come Out," which used a snippet of text spoken by the survivor of a race riot. In 2006, for Reich's 70th birthday, record label Nonesuch released a retrospective box set, Phases, and his work was celebrated with "Reich @ 70," a series of dance performances, concerts, and workshops at BAM, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. The same year, Reich debuted the Daniel Variations, juxtaposing the writing of slain journalist Daniel Pearl with text from the biblical Book of Daniel.

Personal

Reich is married to video artist and collaborator Beryl Korot. The couple recently relocated from lower Manhattan to Pound Ridge.