The Glasshouse

Steve Reich, the pioneering New York composer, turns 90 on 3 October 2026. To celebrate, The Glasshouse will host Steve Reich at 90, a festival weekend bringing some of his most iconic and influential works to the North East.

From Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October 2026, headline concerts, installations and talks offer people the chance to experience Reich’s music in bold and immersive ways.

The festival features performances by Colin Currie as conductor, the Colin Currie Group, the Colin Currie Quartet, Bryce Dessner, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with Radio 3 broadcaster Tom Service hosting. Alongside the performances, there’ll be free activities, including an immersive installation in Northern Rock Foundation Hall.

Steve Reich’s music has shaped the sound of modern classical and popular music, influencing everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead. This festival brings that legacy to life in a vibrant, immersive way. It will be a standout moment in the 2026 classical programme and a chance to hear works performed in the North East for the first time, including the epic Music for 18 Musicians. Colin Currie, widely regarded as one of the leading interpreters of Reich’s music, has curated the programme and will perform throughout the festival.

On Friday 2 October, Colin Currie will lead a powerful tribute in The Desert Music, where members of the Colin Currie Group and Royal Northern Sinfonia join forces. In a programme built on rhythm, pattern and pulse, it features four landmark works: Clapping Music, Runner, The Desert Music and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet. Later that evening, the Colin Currie Quartet presents Drumming – an intimate masterclass in percussion. In Reich’s Drumming Part 1, sections melt into each other with subtle changes in sound and texture, while Julia Wolfe’s Dark Full Ride is a high-energy piece for four drum kits.

On Saturday 3 October, Royal Northern Sinfonia joins Colin Currie for an electrifying performance of Radio Rewrite, Reich’s response to Radiohead, using rock fragments to build minimalist patterns. The programme also includes Pulse and Eight Lines. That evening, in celebration of Steve’s Reich’s birthday, the Colin Currie Group presents the festival’s highlight – Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians alongside two further defining works: Music for Pieces of Wood and Quartet.

On Sunday 4 October in Sage Two, two trailblazers come together when Colin Currie and guitarist/composer Bryce Dessner – described by Reich as “a major force of his generation” – join forces with Royal Northern Sinfonia. At the heart of the programme is Reich’s Different Trains – a landmark work and his personal reflection on the Holocaust through voices, string quartet and pulsing rhythms. Alongside it, Dessner brings four of his own works to the stage: the driving Tromp Miniature, the intricate Garcia Counterpoint, the darkly playful Murder Ballades and Aheym, a surging, emotional journey inspired by his grandmother’s immigrant story.

Later that day, Colin Currie, Bryce Dessner and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra join forces for a concert featuring the iconic works Three Movements, Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards, Electric Counterpoint and The Four Sections. With Bryce Dessner at the heart of Electric Counterpoint and the full orchestra pulsing through The Four Sections, the concert will be a diverse glimpse into Reich’s sonic world.

Across the festival weekend, broadcaster Tom Service will host talks sharing stories and insights into how Reich transformed tape loops and street sounds into some of the most hypnotic works ever written, including a post-concert talk on Saturday 3 October.

Free events on the Concourse include the Colin Currie Quartet performing Reich’s Quartet and Aileen Sweeney’s Starburst on Saturday and the Colin Currie Group will perform Reich’s Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ on Sunday. Further free events will be announced closer to the festival.

The Northern Rock Foundation Hall becomes home to Phase | Pattern | Pulse – Inside the Music of Steve Reich, a free 360 immersive sound experience, created by Loss Gain with the Colin Currie Group and Sound Intermedia. Commissioned by The Glasshouse and Schwarzman Centre in Oxford, the installation reimagines three programmes of Reich’s masterworks: Drumming / Music for 18 Musicians / Six Marimbas; Sextet; Double Sextet – using spatial audio and lighting design to create a new and unique way to experience the deep richness, complexity and beauty of Steve Reich’s music.

Steve Reich said:
“It is wonderful news that more than a dozen of my works are to be played on and around my 90th birthday at The Glasshouse in Gateshead. That the performers will be Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Colin Currie Group both led by Colin himself guarantees absolutely world-class performances. And having Bryce Dessner perform Electric Counterpoint adds to the excitement of the weekend. To have so much of my music performed in one festival, and for audiences in the North East to experience it, makes this a very special occasion and an exciting way to celebrate this milestone.”

Colin Currie added:
“The Steve Reich festival at The Glasshouse promises to be the ultimate landmark in the portrayal of this composer’s music in the UK. Perfectly suited to a vibrant and immersive exploration of this music, The Glasshouse’s many venues and spaces reflect the lines and shapes of this repertoire with perfect symmetry. This rich presentation presents classic show-stoppers alongside lesser performed works by Reich, and we also refract his incalculable influence with music by Julia Wolfe, special guest Bryce Dessner and the young Scottish composer Aileen Sweeney. Any concert of Steve’s music has a celebratory aspect, so do join us for this superb series of concerts at the bold and brilliant Glasshouse – I could not be more excited to have this place as a home for this music.”

Bryce Dessner said: “Steve Reich has been a defining influence on me as a composer and guitarist and performing his music is always an inspiring experience. To perform Electric Counterpoint alongside my own works at The Glasshouse and to collaborate with Colin Currie and Royal Northern Sinfonia in celebrating his 90th birthday makes this festival especially meaningful.”

James Thomas, Executive Director, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Classical Music, commented: “Steve Reich is one of the most influential composers of our time and his 90th birthday is a moment to celebrate his legacy. At The Glasshouse, we’re committed to bringing world-class events to the North East – Steve Reich at 90 is exactly that: ambitious, immersive and unlike anything else in the UK.”

Building on the success of The Glasshouse’s Big Bruckner Weekend in 2024, Steve Reich at 90 will be a landmark celebration of one of the greatest living composers and a chance for audiences to experience his music in thrilling new ways. The Glasshouse continues to celebrate milestone composers with upcoming events, including the Berio 100 celebration on 11 October 2025 in Sage Two, where Dinis Sousa leads Berio Meets the Beatles to mark the centenary of Berio’s birth, and Kurtág 100 on 27 February 2026, when Dinis leads a celebration of the 100th birthday of György Kurtág.

-ENDS-

Orla Noble, orla.noble@premiercomms.com  07834 073795
Beverley Knight: beverley.knight@theglasshouseicm.org  0191 443 4583

LISTINGS

Friday 2 October | 7.30pm
Steve Reich at 90: The Desert Music

Steve Reich Clapping Music

Steve Reich Runner

Steve Reich Double Sextet

Steve Reich arr. Alan Pierson The Desert Music

Colin Currie conductor

Royal Northern Sinfonia

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Friday 2 October | 10pm
Steve Reich at 90: Drumming

Steve Reich Drumming Part 1

Julia Wolfe Dark Full Ride

Colin Currie Quartet

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Saturday 3 October | 5pm
Steve Reich at 90: Radio Rewrite

Steve Reich Pulse

Steve Reich Eight Lines

Steve Reich Radio Rewrite

Colin Currie conductor

Royal Northern Sinfonia

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Saturday 3 October | 6:30pm
Steve Reich at 90: Mallet Quartet – Free event

Steve Reich Mallet Quartet

Aileen Sweeney Starburst

Colin Currie Quartet

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Saturday 3 October | 7:30pm
Steve Reich at 90: Music for 18 Musicians

Steve Reich Music for Pieces of Wood

Steve Reich Quartet

Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians

Colin Currie Group

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Sunday 4 October | 3pm
Steve Reich at 90: Different Trains

Bryce Dessner Murder Ballades
Bryce Dessner Tromp Miniature
Bryce Dessner Garcia Counterpoint
Steve Reich Different Trains
Bryce Dessner Aheym

Colin Currie conductor/percussion
Bryce Dessner electric guitar
Royal Northern Sinfonia

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Sunday 4 October | 6pm
Steve Reich at 90: The Four Sections

Steve Reich Three Movements
Steve Reich Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Steve Reich The Four Sections

Colin Currie conductor
Bryce Dessner electric guitar
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

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Sunday 4 October | Post-concert 8pm
Steve Reich at 90: Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ – Free event

Steve Reich Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ

Colin Currie Group

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About Steve Reich

Steve Reich has been called “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker), and “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times). Starting in the 1960s, his pieces It’s Gonna Rain, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Different Trains, and many others helped shift the aesthetic center of musical composition worldwide away from extreme complexity and towards rethinking pulsation and tonal attraction in new ways. He continues to influence younger generations of composers and mainstream musicians and artists all over the world.

Double Sextet won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 and Different Trains, Music for 18 Musicians, and an album of his percussion works have all earned GRAMMY Awards. He received the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge award in Madrid, the Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall, and the Gold Medal in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been named Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Music in London, the Juilliard School in New York, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, among others.

One of the most frequently choreographed composers, several noted choreographers have created dances to his music, including Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylián, Jerome Robbins, Justin Peck, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Millepied, and Christopher Wheeldon.

Recent works by Reich include Jacob’s Ladder (2023) for voices and large ensemble, Traveler’s Prayer (2020) for voices and large ensemble, Reich/Richter (2019) for large ensemble with or without film, and Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (2018).

Reich’s documentary video opera works—The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot—opened new directions for music theater and have been performed on four continents. His work Quartet, for percussionist Colin Currie, sold out two consecutive concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London shortly after tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival heard Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) perform Electric Counterpoint, followed by the London Sinfonietta performing his Music for 18 Musicians. “There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them,” The Guardian.

About Colin Currie, the Colin Currie Group and the Colin Currie Quartet

Described by Steve Reich as “one of the greatest musicians in the world today,” and by Gramophone Magazine as “at the summit of percussion performance today”, Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist who champions new music at the highest level. The soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost conductors, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles including the London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra. With a particular focus on contemporary compositions, Colin has developed a close working relationship with many of today’s most renowned composers. He has premiered works by Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Sir James MacMillan, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helen Grime, Jennifer Higdon, Rolf Wallin, Julia Wolfe and Kalevi Aho.

In addition to his career as a soloist, Colin is the founder of the Colin Currie Group, the Colin Currie Quartet, and Colin Currie Records — three ventures that celebrate and preserve the recent extraordinary developments in percussion music. As the leader of the Colin Currie ensembles, he regularly conducts performances with the Colin Currie Group and has begun to expand his work as a conductor to work with other ensembles as well. For example, he recently conducted ‘Reich/Richter’ with the Britten Sinfonia at the request of the composer.

About Bryce Dessner

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal songwriter. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with upcoming films including Sing Sing starring Colman Domingo, and John Crowley’s We Live in Time starring Andrew Garfield. Over the years he has garnered great acclaim for his work on films such as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant with the late Ryuichi Sakamoto and for his music to Netflix’s Fernando Meirelles’s The Two Popes.

Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift.

Recent major new works include a Piano Concerto premièred by Alice Sara Ott and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in January 2024 and now being performed internationally; a Concerto for Two Pianos premièred by Katia & Marielle Labèque and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and a Violin Concerto premièred and performed internationally by Pekka Kuusisto.

About BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was formed in December 1935 and is a key contributor to the BBC’s broadcasting and cultural role.

As Scotland’s national broadcasting orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has been performing for audiences across Scotland, the UK and internationally since 1935. From Oban to Aldeburgh and London to Seoul (as part of BBC Proms Korea), the 2024/25 Season has been no exception. The orchestra’s live performances are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio Scotland and Sounds, as well as BBC Television and iPlayer.

Opening eyes and ears with ambitious repertoire beyond any benchmark, the BBC SSO is Scotland’s leading champion of new music. Across nine decades, it has commissioned orchestral music by the most original voices of its time and hosts its annual Tectonics Festival of new and experimental music each spring alongside its Creative Partner Ilan Volkov.

With Associate Artist Lucy Drever the orchestra runs projects that inspire creativity and connection with families, schools and communities across Scotland. And through a close association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the orchestra mentors the next generation of conductors, composers and instrumentalists. The orchestra supports young musical talent in BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Classical Musician competition.

Ryan Wigglesworth began his tenure as Chief Conductor in September 2022. One of the foremost composer-conductors of his generation, he has directed a wide range of repertoire with the BBC SSO including the ballets of Stravinsky, major works of Elgar, and UK premieres by György Kurtág and Composer-in-Association Hans Abrahamsen. Regularly performing at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, the orchestra is a recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award and four Gramophone Awards.

About Royal Northern Sinfonia

Internationally renowned, calling Gateshead home.

37 musicians at the top of their game. Electrifying music, old and new. All the talent, determination and creativity of the North East on a worldwide stage. From their home at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Royal Northern Sinfonia share the joy and wonder of orchestral music with thousands of people across the North of England – and beyond – every year.

From symphonies to string quartets, film soundtracks to choral masses, and original performances with awesome artists from Sheku Kanneh-Mason to Self Esteem, the orchestra’s members have got one of the most varied jobs there is. They’re always looking for fresh new sounds from up-and-coming composers, inviting local communities to share a stage, and doing everything they can to inspire and prepare the musicians of tomorrow to one day take their place.

They’re also working hard to smash the barriers that can stop brilliant people getting into classical music. They’ve teamed up with national partners to support women conductors to develop their careers, to help global majority musicians get vital experience in the orchestra world, and to celebrate disabled and non-disabled musicians breaking new ground together in RNS Moves. And they bring new musical opportunities to the region, headlining the first-ever BBC Proms weekend outside London.

Because they whole-heartedly believe orchestral music is for anyone – big cities and tiny villages, brand-new babies and life-long listeners, die-hard fans and curious minds – they travel far and wide to make sure there’s top-notch classical music on offer for anyone ready to say, “I’ll give that a go”. You’ll find them in churches, castles, and community venues across the North, as well as spearheading concert seasons in Carlisle, Kendal, Middlesbrough, and Sunderland.

With 65 years of success to build on, they’ve signed a dynamic young artistic leadership -Principal Conductor Dinis Sousa, Artistic Partner Maria Włoszczowska and Principal Guest Conductor Nil Venditti – to lead the way into a bold, bright future.

Wherever the orchestra play and whoever they share a stage with, every performance is a chance to see, hear and feel the music.

About The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is a home for live music lovers.

It’s a place where you can hear rock legends or pop icons on the same night as folk trios or string quartets. Where new musicians are nurtured and showcased on the same stages as platinum-selling performers. And where youth choirs and tambourine-shaking toddlers practise in the same spaces as its acclaimed orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Because as an international centre for music they’re focused on creating and celebrating outstanding music – whether that’s unearthing or growing talent from the region or bringing the world’s best artists to their stages. And as a charity they’re focused on making sure all of that is available to anyone – no matter where you’re from, how old you are, how much money you have, or what challenges you face.

Which is why every year more than 2 million people are able to join for top-notch gigs, concerts, and classes – in their venue at Gateshead Quays, out in communities across the North East, and through livestreamed performances and digital lessons.

Whether you’re making it up or taking it in, you’ll find music lives and grows there.

More about The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

• Since opening in 2004, The Glasshouse has hosted over 10,000 performances, welcoming nearly 5 million audience members and a total of 8 million visitors through its doors. It would take more than 27 years to see every show if you attended one every day.
• Over two decades, the charity has delivered around 233,000 music lessons, reaching young people and adults 2.8 million times across its education programmes (1.8 million of which were young people).
• As its resident orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia has toured globally, performing across four continents and livestreaming to audiences across five. Royal Northern Sinfonia also continues to bring world-class music to communities across the country, with 58% of performances in “levelling up for culture” areas.
• The Glasshouse has supported the careers of thousands of artists like Ward Thomas who have worked their way from free stages to headline shows in its main hall, achieving national and global recognition.
• A recent report quantified its annual social value through education, inclusion and community programmes at £14.1 million.
• Since 2004, The Glasshouse has welcomed over 400,000 delegates for conferences and events, hosting organisations such as Greggs, NHS, and British Engines. Through conferences and events it has generated £10.6 million, helping to fund the venue and support live music and education programmes.
• Over the past two decades, The Glasshouse has generated £681.2million to the UK economy with £38.6m each year in ongoing impact. It supports 700 jobs directly and indirectly.
• The iconic building, designed by Foster + Partners, has 630 panes of glass and stands 40 metres tall. In its opening year, it was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and won the RIBA Inclusive Design Award in 2005.

Celebrating 20 years – In December 2024, The Glasshouse marked its 20th birthday. Over the next year, the charity will reflect on two decades of achievements and look ahead to its third decade, with major initiatives like the Music Academy and Music Pass for newborns, making music accessible to all.