From his early taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot's digital video opera Three Tales (2002), composer Steve Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. Beryl Korot is a pioneer of video installation art and has exhibited works in museums in Europe, the U.S. and Japan since 1974. Her recent collaborations with her husband, Steve Reich, have brought video installation art into the context of contemporary music theater. In this second conversation in our Art + Invention series, we will explore two works produced by this creative husband and wife couple: The Cave (1990-93), a music theater video piece exploring the Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac and Three Tales, which presents three parables of technology run amok: the crash of the German airship Hindenburg, the testing of atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll, and a preview of a catastrophe to come in the birth of artificial intelligence and cloning.

Presented with the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

Steve Reich, Composer
http://www.stevereich.com

Beryl Korot, Video Artist
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/korot-beryl