Amaze your ears with Music for 18 Musicians

"The Story of the year in new music circles" --New Sounds (John Schaefer)

The young members of Grand Valley State University (GVSU) New Music Ensemble, based in Allendale, Michigan, have outdone themselves. From nowhere (at least musically speaking) they have taken New York City, and now the world, by storm with their performance and recording of one of the twentieth century's most demanding works.
Renowned composer and icon of Minimalist "pattern music", Steve Reich turned 70 on October 3, 2006 - a milestone celebrated by performing organizations worldwide. As the anniversary approached, Bill Ryan, director of the GVSU New Music Ensemble, considered ways to mark the occasion. While aware of the work's difficulty, he decided to set his sights on performing Music for 18 Musicians, the Everest of Reich's oeuvre. Played without a break for over an hour under tightly controlled conditions,
Music for 18 Musicians is fiercely demanding of its players, with an instrumentation of four pianos, winds, percussion, voices, and strings. It is performed without a conductor, and cued by key members of the ensemble with the group conjointly deciding how many times to repeat material within each of the work's eleven sections. Consequently no two performances are ever the same. Music for 18 Musicians requires exceptional alertness, concentration, and endurance from musicians, let alone some that have rarely touched their instrument before.
GVSU is situated in the farmlands of western Michigan and does not have a powerhouse conservatory. Therefore in order to perform this piece, Ryan had to supplement the talent by enlisting a few faculty colleagues and members of the community. Most of the players were relatively young (born nearly a decade after the work's debut in 1976), and yet Ryan felt after a few rehearsals that a successful performance was in reach.
In a rare case of "community outreach" reaching in, Ryan arranged a field trip for five of his students to attend a Carnegie Hall professional performance of Music for 18 Musicians. Some students had never left Michigan, and one had never traveled on a plane. They were enthralled by the performance and excited to meet Steve Reich.
Over the weekend Marc Mellits, who transcribed the piece for publication, and Todd Reynolds, a longtime violinist with Reich's ensemble, met with Ryan and his group and offered crucial insights. Reynolds became an influential supporter, and was instrumental in persuading Bang on a Can to bring the ensemble to perform.
Bang on a Can conceived the idea of programming the performance in the hour just before dawn, so the rising sun would be visible through the windows of the World Financial Center's Winter Garden atrium as the piece ended. Listeners reported an unforgettable experience-
"For listeners present from the evening's onset, that performance took on unanticipated dimensions; higher cognitive functions ceded to powerful impressions of physicality and emotion. The entry of the maracas in section VI felt epic" --Steve Smith for the New York Times
"[The ensemble succeeded in] holding 400 people transfixed at 4 am" --Alex Ross
Now, the ensemble's rendition has been captured by renowned engineer Silas Brown on a hybrid stereo/multichannel, 5.1 surround Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD), which can also be played on any standard CD player. Of the five recordings available, this one best conveys the enveloping sound world of Music for 18 Musicians as it is heard in live performance. It is published by innova Recordings (innova 678), the label of the American Composers Forum, and is available from http://www.innova.mu
"Who would have thought? From a Midwestern school in Michigan, Grand Valley State University, here comes a really first class New Music Ensemble. They spent a good long time rehearsing and then came to New York City and blew away a full house at the Winter Garden with their performance of Music for 18 Musicians- at dawn- during the Bang on a Can Marathon. They then went on to make a really moving recording of the piece. A gorgeous and stunningly accurate CD of Music for 18 Musicians, from the heartland to the heart. Take a listen." --Steve Reich