Colin Currie Group: Synergy Vocals

The Colin Currie Group was founded by its namesake to celebrate and showcase the music of Steve Reich, and in its 15-year history has developed a close collaborative relationship with the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. Currie is a world-class percussionist, and has assembled a superlative ensemble of percussion, strings, keyboards, and winds, augmented by the fantastic Synergy Vocals, to perform Reich’s challenging music—from his iconic works of the 1970s and 1980s to brand-new commissions. Here in Berkeley, the group celebrates Reich’s 86th birthday, performing his influential Music for 18 Musicians and his classic Tehillim, the first work in which he explored his Jewish heritage. A Cal Performances co-commission, Traveler’s Prayer is a sinuous, pensive setting of three Old Testament texts—a work the Guardian describes as “very different from anything Reich has composed before.”