A Legend Gets His Due

The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced the other day, and fans of minimalist uber-composer Steve Reich are rejoicing that their man has finally been honored. Reich, whose "Clapping Music" was responsible for changing the way a huge number of people thought about concert music (ItC fans who go back to the David Alan Miller days may remember that David featured Clapping Music on his final Casual Classics program back in 2007,) has never slowed down in the 37 years since he wrote that seminal work, and the Pulitzer honors one of his newest works, a Double Sextet commissioned by new music wunderkinds eighth blackbird, who themselves walked away with a Grammy recently.

Now, one of the great things about eighth blackbird is that they produce a LOT of online content, both audio and video, so there's no need to wait for a studio recording of the Double Sextet to hear what so impressed the Pulitzer committee. Here's a clip of the blackbirds taking their first rehearsal crack at the piece...



And here's a behind-the-scenes look at the recording session the group did last year to lay down the "other" sextet part that plays simultaneously with their live performances of the piece...



Lastly, for those of you in Los Angeles (and we know there are a couple of you, at least,) the blackbirds will actually be performing the Double Sextet this very weekend at the Colburn School of Music, as part of a weeklong residency they're doing there. You can check out the group's concert schedule here (but note that they change up their repertoire a lot, so the Reich, which premiered last month, may only be on a few upcoming programs,) and read their own blog post on the Pulitzer announcement here...