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A birthday mixtape for Steve Reich

New York bassoonist Rebekah Heller has crafted a mixtape for her neighbour, Steve Reich, to celebrate the minimalist composer's 90th birthday. Verity Sharp shares the music.

Verity Sharp presents a carefully-curated musical offering from one artist to another as bassoonist and conductor Rebekah Heller gifts her friend and fellow New Yorker Steve Reich a mixtape to celebrate his 90th Birthday.

Rebekah and Steve first sparked their collaborative work and friendship in 2018 after realising they were neighbours. As a bassoonist, Heller became deeply interested in finding ways to perform the iconic minimalist composer's compositions on her own instrument, and on her recent album, Righteous Rage, Heller worked with Reich to arrange his 2003 composition “Cello Counterpoint” for multitracked bassoons. It's a work that Reich himself described as “one of the most difficult pieces I have ever written, calling for extremely tight, fast moving rhythmic relationships not commonly found in the cello literature." Heller co-produced her own ambitious reconfiguration (titled "Grand Street Counterpoint") with the composer in the spring of 2024. For her exclusive Late Junction mixtape, she weaves together a sequence of music for her friend inspired by the idea of 'musical explorers', those artists who - like Steve - have aimed to experiment and push their sound forwards.

Elsewhere in the show: glassy sounds from a New Zealand electro-acoustic pioneer working in the 1960s, recommended courtesy of a listener via the Late Junction inbox.

Produced by Cat Gough
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

To listen on most smart speakers, just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Late Junction”.

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28 days left to listen

1 hour, 29 minutes

Last on

Friday 22:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Steve Reich

    Come Out

    • New Sounds in Electronic Music.
    • Odyssey Records.

  • Steve Reich & Kronos Quartet

    Different Trains After The War

    • Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint.
    • Elektra Nonesuch.

  • Rebekah Heller

    Grand Street Counterpoint

    • Righteous Rage.
    • Canteloupe Music.

  • Hanne Lippard & Renato Grieco

    Portrait of a Betrayal

    • Today's Special.
    • Shelter Press.

  • Annie Bloch

    Papership

    • Luvt.
    • OOH-Sounds.

  • Jessie Cox

    Mirror Blown Into Pieces, The Immortal Ill

    • Yarn/Wire Currents Vol.9.

  • Carmen Villain

    Blue

    • Memoria.
    • Smalltown Supersound.

  • Kucwiny Theatre Industry

    Ay Iwanga

    • Luo Sound if the Alur.
    • Nyege Nyege Tapes.

  • Regno Maggiore

    Tambu

    • La Poesia dell'infinito Presente.
    • Gang Of Ducks.

  • Rebekah Fawn Heller

    Righteous Rage

  • Steve Reich

    Nagoya Marimbas

    Performer: Bob Becker. Performer: James Preiss.
    • Works: 1965-1995.
    • Nonesuch.

  • Dai Fujikura

    Neo

    Performer: Honjoh Hidejiro.
    • Chance Monsoon.
    • Minabel.

  • Nyokabi Kariũki

    Quiet Face

    • FEELING BODY.
    • Cmntx Records.

  • Matana Roberts

    Amma Jerusalem

    • Coin Coin Chapter Two: Mississipi Moonchile.
    • Constellation.

  • yMusic

    Bladed Stance (Marcos Balter)

    • Balance Problems.

  • Dan Tepfer

    Improvised Invention in B Major

    • Inventions / Reinventions.
    • StorySound Records.

  • Nathan Davis

    Hagoromo, Pt. 2 "Earth": No. 15, Ascension (Live)

    Ensemble: International Contemporary Ensemble. Conductor: Nicholas DeMaison.
    • Hagoromo.
    • Tundra Records.

  • Sangomas & Maga Bo

    Abaphantsi (feat. Teba Shumba)

    • Vibrations from the Motherland.
    • Buried Treasure.

  • Leafcutter John

    Bilberry

    • Warm Grit.
    • Fractal Meat Cuts.

  • Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola

    Paradiso: Fire Road

    • Sonado Gravedad.
    • Notice Recordings.

  • Brìghde Chaimbeul & Colin Stetson

    Even though the Frost is Harsh

    • All the Light in the World.
    • INVADA Records.

  • KMRU

    uq

    • Crop.
    • Self-release.

  • Maria Teresa Pirrigheddu & Vieri Mura

    Rundines Chi'olades

    • Rundinas.
    • Mississippi Records.

  • Marja Ahti & John McCowen

    Chorales

    • Errands.
    • Black Truffle.

Broadcast

  • Friday 22:00
    BBC Radio 3

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