Sonic Generator to present Steve Reich’s “City Life”

With “City Life,” written in 1995, Reich explored and expanded the use of recorded samples of speech and a wide variety of other sounds, incorporating them into a portrait of urban life.

Though Reich is widely recognized as a pioneer and one of the best known composers of our time, he seems not to get the same measure of attention in Atlanta as the other members of the minimalist triumvirate. John Adams’ works appear fairly regularly at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in elaborate, semi-staged productions. And Philip Glass’s works have been showcased at Emory University’s Schwartz Center a couple of times in recent years, including a performance of his landmark “Akhnaten” by Atlanta Opera. Reich’s lower profile here may simply reflect the problems his music poses for Atlanta’s big-ticket ensembles: it is generally written for smaller forces and often includes sampling or other electronic components.

For Sonic Generator, this is not a problem. In fact, the group prides itself in performing only music which includes some kind of technology element. Founded in 2006 as Tech’s contemporary music ensemble-in-residence, the group consists of professional musicians, including members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and works with students and faculty as a laboratory for technology in music as well as a high level concert group. Its cutting-edge performances draw diverse, enthusiastic, room-filling crowds.

The French orchestra which joins Sonic Generator for Sunday’s concert is based in the ancient city of Metz, but is housed in a celebrated modernist concert hall. While it performs a full range of classical music, in recent years the orchestra has become known for its forays into new music under the leadership of music director Jacques Mercier, who will conduct the Atlanta concert.

After the Atlanta performance, Sonic Generator will travel to France, and the two groups will reprise the concert for the audience there. “I am delighted that “City Life” will be performed once again at L’Arsenal, where it was given its world premiere. That it will also be performed at Georgia Tech is good news back here in America,” said Reich.

The concert will include a work by Tech professor Jason Freeman, who heads Sonic Generator. Freeman is known for works that have a participatory element, and “Graph Theory” is no exception. Written for solo violin, the work is “composed as little fragments,” he said. There’s a website, and “before the concert, people can navigate the site and choose their adventure.” The choices go into a database, and the most popular fragments are woven into a printed score, which is performed that evening.

Much of the program reflects the French-American nature of the evening. “Orphee,” a work by the provocative American composer John Zorn, is a re-imagination of a popular sonata by Debussy. The original was written for flute, viola, and harp. Zorn has added a laptop. Also on the program are selections from a new composition by Daniel Wohl, a French composer now living in New York. Wohl’s works deal with distortion and “noise.”

The concert celebrates the fifth anniversary of France-Atlanta (a cultural exchange program); the Tech campus in Metz; the 25th anniversary of L’Arsenal in Metz; and artistic innovations in French and American music.