Frames Percussion and Synergy Vocals perform “Music for 18 Musicians”, Steve Reich’s most popular work, this Friday at L’Auditori.
As part of the programme with which the Auditori de Barcelona is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, this Friday a concert will take place in Hall 2 “Oriol Martorell” that promises to be quite an event. The Spanish instrumental ensemble Frames Percussion and the British vocal ensemble Synergy Vocals will perform a version of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.
Composed between 1974 and 1976, the work has become an emblem of minimalist music and is possibly the American composer’s most popular and best-known work. Since its premiere on 24 April 1976 in the auditorium of New York’s The Town Hall, in the Midtown Manhattan Theater District, the piece has been performed almost exclusively by Steve Reich & Musicians for more than twenty years. The vocal ensemble Synergy Vocals began as a quartet of female singers founded by Micaela Haslam for Reich’s 60th birthday celebration in London, where they performed Tehillim. Today, the group consists of a wide range of singers in a variety of styles, but is considered to be one of the experts in the music of Steve Reich. The instrumental part of the concert will be performed by the Barcelona percussion group Frames Percussion, which celebrates the tenth anniversary of its formation in 2024. The event has coincided with the awarding of the prestigious ensemble prize ’24 by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
The show also features a truly luxurious lighting and stage design by the Spanish company Cube.bz, responsible for the stunning stage designs created for shows by artists such as Rosalía, Silvia Pérez Cruz, Rigoberta Bandini, C. Tangana, León Benavente, Enric Montefusco, Manolo García, Lagartija Nick, Refree, Extremoduro, María Arnal & Marcel Bagès, Standstill and Albert Pla, as well as theatrical stage designs for companies such as Teatro en Vilo, Agrupación Sr. Serrano or Sol Picó’s dance company or operas such as Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.