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World Premiere of New Steve Reich Composition 'WTC 9/11' March 19

Composer Steve Reich

The world premiere of "WTC 9/11," by composer Steve Reich, will be performed by the Kronos Quartet at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 19, in Page Auditorium on Duke University's West Campus. The premiere is part of an all-Steve Reich program for the evening hosted by Duke Performances.

"WTC 9/11" integrates a live quartet performance, quartets on tape and pre-recorded voices, showcasing Reich's characteristic use of sound samples. The new composition uses the events of Sept. 11, 2001 as an artistic premise and is meant to display, as the composer states, "the means of connecting one person to another -- harmonically."

Presented in three movements, the composition features a spiritual side, incorporating recordings of liturgical chanting from the Jewish tradition of Shmira, a religious practice to guard the soul of a recently deceased body from the time of death to burial.

This is the third Reich work written for and commissioned by the Kronos Quartet. The March 19 performance features all three quartets: "WTC 9/11," "Triple Quartet" and "Different Trains," as well as music from "The Cave," Reich's 1993 opera.

Tickets are $5 for students, range in price from $24-$52 for the public and are available for purchase from the Duke Box Office, 684-4444.

In addition, Reich and the Grammy-winning, San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet will be artists-in-residence at Duke in the week leading up to the performance. Several free and open to the public artists-in-residence events featuring Reich and members of the quartet will be offered, including:Thursday, March 17 -- Steve Reich & David Harrington in Conversation, The Pinhook, 117 W. Main St., 6:30 p.m.; free and open to the public.

Friday, March 18 -- Q&A with Steve Reich on his Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composition "Double Sextet," Biddle Music Building's Bone Hall, Duke East Campus, noon; free and open to the public.

A full and up-to-date schedule of residency activities can be found at dukeperformances.duke.edu/series/inventors/kronos.NHK, Japan's only public broadcasting company, will be at Duke to film the world premiere.