Program Notes:

Steve Reich
Composer and Percussion

Steve Reich was recently called "... the most original musical thinker of our time" (The New Yorker) and "... among the great composers of the century" (The New York Times). He has won numerous awards and prizes, including a Pulitzer Prize, multiple Grammy

Awards, the Preamium Imperial award in music, and the Polar Prize. Mr. Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. "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," states The Guardian (London).

NEXUS
The first, entirely improvised NEXUS concert, in 1971, marked the formation of a group that would touch and entertain people of all levels of musical learning, in all genres of percussion music. Bob Becker, Bill Cahn, Russell Hartenberger, and Garry Kvistad are virtuosos alone, and bring elements of their knowledge and character to a distinct and powerful whole. The first Western percussion group to perform in the People's Republic of China, NEXUS has enjoyed participating at international music festivals around the world. NEXUS is the recipient of the Banff Centre for the Arts National Award and the Toronto Arts Award.

Simon Docking
Piano
Australian-born pianist Simon Docking has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada, the United States, Australia, Mexico, and Europe. Known for his interpretations of modern music, Docking has premiered compositions by numerous contemporary composers. He has been a founding member of several chamber groups in Australia, the United States, and Canada. He has taught at The Banff Centre and the University of Toronto. He currently lives in Halifax, where he is active in the contemporary music scene.

Gregory Oh
Piano
Canadian pianist Gregory Oh holds graduate degrees from the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan. He teaches at the University of Toronto, plays harpsichord in uberband The Lollipop People, directs the new music group Toca Loca, and appears with a wide variety of ensembles across Canada.

Roberto Occhipinti
Bass guitar
Bassist Roberto Occhipinti studied with Thomas Monohan, and was mentored by Joel Quarrington and Dave Young at the University of Toronto. In Canada, he has worked with many of the foremost symphonies, ensembles, and artists, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, jazz pianist Hilario Durán, the True North Brass, the Gryphon Trio, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Mr. Occhipinti is also a Juno Award-winning producer.

Simon Docking teaches The Royal Conservatory curriculum from his studio in Halifax and Gregory Oh is an Alumnus of The Glenn Gould School. All of the other artists are making their Royal Conservatory debuts tonight.

Stephen Michael Reich
Born in New York, New York, October 3, 1936

Clapping Music (1972)
Clapping Music is a minimalist piece written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping. One performer claps this basic rhythm for the entirety of the piece:

The second performer claps the same rhythm, but after every 12 bars he shifts by a 8th note to the left:
The two performers continue this until the second performer has shifted twelve 8th notes and is hence playing the pattern in unison with the first performer again.
- Note adapted from Boosey& Hawkes

2x5 (2008)
2x5, scored for standard rock band set-up, was premiered on July 2, 2009, the opening night of the Manchester International Festival (MIF). Performed by Bang On A Can (BOAC), the work shared a double bill with German electronic music pioneers, Kraftwerk, and was commissioned by MIF in association with Casa da Música (Porto).

In 2x5, Reich returns to the heavier rhythmic forms of his early days but expands his palate with rock instrumentation. Scored for two sets of five instruments (hence "2x5"), this 21-minute piece calls for a total of ten musicians: four electric guitars, two pianos, two bass guitars, and two drum sets. Performers can either play the piece all-live with ten musicians or with five live musicians against a pre-recorded tape, as BOAC did for the premiere.
- Note adapted from Boosey& Hawkes

Mallet Quartet(2009)
Mallet Quartet(2009) is scored for two vibraphones and two five octave marimbas. I had never written for five octave marimbas extending down to cello C. On the one hand, I was delighted to have the possibility of a low bass and, on the other hand, apprehensive since, hit just slightly too hard, a mallet that low can produce noise instead of pitch. Eventually, after a bit of experimentation, this was well worked out.

The piece is in three movements: fast, slow, fast. In the two outer fast movements the marimbas set the harmonic background which remains rather static compared to recent pieces of mine, like Double Sextet (2007). The marimbas interlock in canon, also a procedure I have used in many other works. The vibes present the melodic material first solo and then in canon. However, in the central slow movement the texture changes into a thinner, more transparent one with very spare use of notes, particularly in the marimbas. I was originally concerned this movement might just be 'too thin,' but I think it ends up being the most striking, and certainly the least expected, of the piece. Mallet Quartet is about 15 minutes in duration. It was co-commissioned by the Amadinda Quartet in Budapest, on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary, by Nexus in Toronto, So Percussion in New York, and Synergy Percussion in Australia. The world premiere was given by the Amadinda Quartet in Béla Bartók National Concert Hall on December 6, 2009, and the American premiere was given by So Percussion at Stanford University Lively Arts in California on January 9, 2010.
- Note by Steve Reich

Music for Pieces of Wood (1973)
Music for Pieces of Wood grows out of the same roots as Clapping Music: a desire to make music with the simplest possible instruments. The claves, or cylindrical pieces of hard wood, used here were selected for their particular pitches (A, B, C-sharp, D-sharp, and D-sharp an octave above), and for their resonant timbre. This piece is one of the loudest I have ever composed, but uses no amplification whatsoever. The rhythmic structure is based entirely on the process of rhythmic "build-ups" or the substitution of beats for rests, and is in three sections of decreasing pattern length: 6/4, 4/4, 3/4.
- Note by Steve Reich

Sextet (1984)
Sextet is in five movements played without pause. The relationship of the five movements is that of an arch form A-B-C-B-A. The first and last movements are fast, the second and fourth moderate, and the third slow. Changes of tempo are made abruptly at the beginning of new movements by metric modulation to either get slower or faster. Movements are also organized harmonically with the chord cycle for the first and fifth, another for the second and fourth, and yet another for the third. The harmonies used are largely dominant chords with added tones creating a somewhat darker, chromatic, and more varied harmonic language. Sextet was commissioned by Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians and by the French Government for the Nexus Percussion Ensemble. The first performance under the title Music for Percussion and Keyboards was given at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on 19 December, 1984, by Nexus with guest artists playing keyboards.
- Note adapted from Boosey& Hawkes