STEVE REICH Life&times

1965

LIFE: Following studies in New York and California, he produces his first major composition, It’s Gonna Rain for magnetic tape, in which he breaks new ground with his ‘phasing’ technique. TIMES: Soon after releasing his Bringing It All Back Home

album, Bob Dylan finds himself booed by some of his fans at the Newport Folk Festival, Rhode Island, when he performs with an electric band for the first time.

1988

LIFE: His Different Trains for string quartet and tape contrasts his childhood journeys in the US with those of Jewish children under the Nazis. The Kronos Quartet’s recording of it wins a Grammy.

TIMES: At the Summer Olympics in Seoul, US sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner sets a new world record in the 200m as she wins gold medals in the 100m, 200m and

4x100m relay.

1936

LIFE: Steve Reich is born on 3 October in New York. When his parents separate, his life is divided between New York and California, necessitating long train journeys between the two. TIMES: In the US presidential election, Franklin D Roosevelt enjoys a landslide victory over Alf Landon, who wins just eight electoral votes out of 531.

1970

LIFE: He travels to Accra for five weeks to study at the University of Ghana with the drummer Gideon Alorwoyie. The trip inspires his 90-minute work Drumming the following year.

TIMES: Protests against the Vietnam

War increase when, having previously stated his aim to de-escalate the conflict, President Nixon orders US forces to begin operations in neighbouring Cambodia.

2002

LIFE: Co-written with his wife, the visual artist Beryl Korot, his science-based opera Three

Tales focuses the Hindenburg explosion, nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll and the development of Dolly the Sheep. TIMES: The American journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped by Islamist jihadists on his way to an interview in Karachi, Pakistan. He is later beheaded by his captors, who claim that he is a spy.

2013

LIFE: The London Sinfonietta gives the world premiere of his Radio Rewrite, a work inspired by British group Radiohead’s

Kid A and In Rainbows albums. TIMES: Daniel Day-lewis’s portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln wins him the Academy Award for Best Actor, making him the first person to win the category on three occasions.