Steve Reich, a seminal figure in American music, marked his 90th birthday this month with a series of performances celebrating both his enduring influence and recent work. Living in Pound Ridge, New York, about an hour north of Manhattan, Reich has spent the past two decades composing in a quiet setting he describes as bringing him psychological peace, though the creative process itself remains challenging and unpredictable.

Reich’s latest composition, “In All Your Ways,” was recently premiered by the Colin Currie Group and is set to be performed at Carnegie Hall as part of the birthday festivities. This new piece, roughly 18 minutes in length and scored for large ensemble, draws rhythmic inspiration from the syllables of its biblical title, a phrase from Proverbs: “In all your ways know Him, and He will straighten your paths.” Rather than employing traditional tempo changes, Reich manipulates the duration of notes to create shifting energies within the work, a compositional approach he associates with the vitality often found in the work of younger composers. Reich noted that the piece presented a departure from his usual process, involving a period of experimentation followed by the rapid composition of slow movements integrated into an evolving structure—a method he describes as invigorating at this stage of his career.

The title phrase serves as a rhythmic motif within the music, functioning as a kind of “song without words,” avoiding the challenges of vocal performance in contemporary commissions. Reich has long explored the rhythmic qualities of language, as famously demonstrated in earlier pieces such as “Different Trains” and “The Cave,” where instrumental lines mirror speech patterns.

The recent celebrations also included an immersive, durational presentation of Reich’s 50-year-old classic “Music for 18 Musicians” at the Park Avenue Armory, concluding just days before the Carnegie Hall event. This work epitomizes Reich’s style of radical simplicity, featuring a cycle of 11 chords layered with intricate rhythmic patterns over a steady pulse. Originally performed exclusively by Reich and his close collaborators without a conductor, the piece has since become a touchstone for multiple generations of musicians and is now recognized as a staple for serious performers of new music. The current Armory production features three ensembles spanning multiple generations: Reich’s ensemble, students from the Manhattan School of Music, and the group Alarm Will Sound, illustrating the work’s expanding influence.

Reich reflected on the evolution of his creative approach and the shifting landscape of contemporary music over the past five decades. He highlighted how his generation of composers, including Terry Riley, La Monte Young, and Philip Glass, diverged from traditional Western practices by reexamining tempo, tonality, and instrumentation, each following his own path. Reich favors ensemble and chamber compositions over orchestral works, noting that while pieces like “The Desert Music” are exceptions, his music is best suited to more intimate settings.

Looking back to a 1970 set of predictions he made about music’s future, Reich acknowledged that many of his forecasts had come to fruition: electronic music blending into instrumental music, the integration of non-Western musical models, broader world music education, a return to rhythmic pulse in dance, and the resurgence of tonal centers. While he refrained from making new predictions, stating the unpredictability of future developments, he remains engaged with the ongoing evolution of music, even as his own work continues to resonate with audiences and performers alike.