Hypnotic. Impulsive. Music for now.

Who’s on stage

Our own Royal Northern Sinfonia, combining forces with our pioneering inclusive ensemble, RNS Moves, known for its sense of adventure and musical curiosity.

What they’re playing

Two real icons of 20th century classical music – Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ and Steve Reich’s Different Trains, plus music from Julius Eastman.

Hypnotic. Rhythmic. Moving. Compelling. Steve Reich’s Different Trains is all of these. While he might belong to the school of composing known as ‘minimalism’ his music is maximalist in many ways – including the impact it has on the listener. Different Trains uses fragments of speech to inspire tunes, combines recorded elements with live music, and since its 1988 premiere has gone on to become one of the most performed of 20th century pieces of classical music.

Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ is equally hypnotic and consists of over 50 short tunes. Every performance is different, as it’s left to the performers to decide how often to repeat them and how to add emphasis and musical colour. Julius Eastman’s jittery, excitable exploration of Black queer joy starts your night.

Given how much music has been written over the centuries it’s increasingly hard to come up with something truly new. But Steve Reich’s music really did break the mould – using small snippets of melody, incorporating recorded music and speech alongside live performances, and being made up of small fragments of music that slowly shift and evolve. Andrew Clements, writing in The Guardian has said that he is one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history”.