CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS ALL-STEVE REICH PROGRAM WITH PERCUSSIONISTS COLIN CURRIE AND DANIEL DRUCKMAN & PIANISTS SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS AND PHILIP MOORE ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29 IN ZANKEL HALL

Steve Reich’s music has been influential to composers and mainstream musicians all over the world. He is a leading pioneer of minimalism, having in his youth broken away from the establishment that, at that time, was serialism. His music is known for steady pulse, repetition, and a fascination with canons; it combines rigorous structures with propulsive rhythms and seductive instrumental color. It also embraces harmonies of non-Western and American vernacular music (especially jazz). His studies have included the Gamelan, African drumming (at the University of Ghana), and traditional forms of chanting the Hebrew scriptures.

Describing his new Quartet, Mr. Reich said, “The piece is one of the more complex I have composed. It frequently changes key and often breaks off continuity to pause or take up new material. Though the parts are not unduly difficult, it calls for a high level of ensemble virtuosity.

“The piece is dedicated to Colin Currie, a percussionist who has broken the mold by maintaining his solo career with orchestras and recitals and also, quite amazingly, by founding the Colin Currie Group which plays whatever ensemble music he believes in. I salute him and hope others will take note.”

About the Artists
Recognized for his “athletic percussionism, compulsive showmanship and deep musicality” (The Guardian), percussionist Colin Currie is a solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers who has been the driving force behind new percussion repertoire for more than a decade. Championing new music at the highest level, he is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. From his earliest years, Mr. Currie forged a pioneering path in creating new music for percussion. Past commissions have included works by composers such as Simon Holt, Kurt Schwertsik, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Jennifer Higdon, Alexander Goehr, and Kalevi Aho, whose new percussion concerto Sieidi he performed with Osmo Vänskä and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s South Bank Centre in 2012. He also had the privilege of commissioning a new work from Elliott Carter: a double concerto titled Conversations, which he premiered with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2011, and then in its extended form, he premiered the new longer version Two Controversies and a Conversation with David Robertson leading the New York Philharmonic. In 2011, Colin Currie was appointed Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre.

Percussionist Daniel Druckman is active as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and recording artist, concertizing throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. He has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic’s Horizons concerts, the San Francisco Symphony’s “New and Unusual Music Series,” and in recital in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tokyo. He has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1991, where he serves as Associate Principal Percussionist, and has made numerous guest appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, American Brass Quintet, Group for Contemporary Music, Orpheus, Steve Reich and Musicians, and the Philip Glass Ensemble. An integral part of New York’s new music community, both as soloist and as a member of the New York New Music Ensemble and Speculum Musicae, Mr. Druckman has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Aaron Jay Kernis, Oliver Knussen, Poul Ruders, Joseph Schwantner, Ralph Shapey, and Charles Wuorinen, among many others.

Pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips has performed throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, and most recently as a conductor. His studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne were followed by a Master’s Degree and a Fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Mr. Crawford-Phillips is a founding member of the Kungsbacka Trio, which made its Carnegie Hall debut on the Distinctive Debuts series and appeared at major European concert halls, including the Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Cologne Philharmonie. In May 2003, Mr. Crawford-Phillips was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He holds teaching positions at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama. Mr. Crawford-Phillip’s piano duo with Philip Moore has won international prizes and awards, including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2004. The duo has performed and broadcast internationally, and made frequent appearances as concerto artists and recitalists at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall. They have given world premieres of Detlev Glanert’s Two Piano Concerto and, at the 2009 BBC Proms, Anna Meredith’s Two Piano Concerto.

Pianist Philip Moore studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne, during which time he won many prizes. Upon leaving, he was awarded the Meaker Fellowship and was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy in 2003. In 2004, he became a Steinway Artist. He has performed throughout the world, including all of the major UK venues. Mr. Moore has recorded for radio and television throughout Europe and appeared as a concerto artist with, among others, the Hallé, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He is the pianist of the Hebrides Ensemble and has worked with many international artists, giving duo and chamber music performances and broadcasts with groups such as ECO Ensemble, Conchord, and Britten Sinfonia. In 2006, he and pianist Andrew West began a two-year collaboration with Michael Clark Dance Company, playing Stravinsky’s two-piano version of Rite of Spring at the Barbican Theatre and worldwide on tour. Mr. Moore has recorded for the Linn, Naxos, Signum, and Deux-Elles labels.

Program Information
Wednesday, October 29 at 8:00 p.m.
Zankel Hall
COLIN CURRIE, Percussion
DANIEL DRUCKMAN, Percussion
SIMON CRAWFORD-PHILLIPS, Piano
PHILIP MOORE, Piano
SARAH BRAILEY, Vocalist
JAMIE JORDAN, Vocalist
Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

ALL STEVE REICH PROGRAM
Clapping Music
Quartet (US Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
Drumming

Pre-concert talk starts at 7:00 p.m. in Zankel Hall: Steve Reich and Colin Currie in conversation with Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean, The Juilliard School.

Tickets: $55–$65.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.

Image at the top of release © Chris Dawes