40th anniversary concert series

Counterpoints

January 29 2026 | 6:00-9:00PM (Timed Entry)
Hopscotch | 1020 SE 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97214

To celebrate Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, join us for a performance of all four of his tour-de-force solo Counterpoints: New York, Electric, Vermont, and Cello. In this timed-entry experience, each instrumental soloist will be stationed in a different room alternating performances of each of the “Counterpoints” on loop while the audience roams freely through the neon halls of Hopscotch.

The music of Steve Reich has been a Third Angle staple for decades– recurring “Reich-analia” concerts, an 80th birthday celebration in 2016, and notably in 2001 when Reich made the trip to Portland to work directly with 3A on the “dynamite” (his words) program of Proverb, Different Trains, and Music for 18 Musicians. 

The musical influence of Steve Reich spans far beyond the program pages of Third Angle and other “new music” groups. In an article celebrating Reich’s 70th birthday, Alex Ross writes that “Brian Eno, David Bowie, David Byrne, and a thousand d.j.s have paid him heed.”

In Reich’s own words his style is best described as “Music as a Gradual Process.” He writes:

I do not mean the process of composition, but rather pieces of music that are, literally, processes

I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music. 

Performing and listening to a gradual musical process resembles: pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest; turning over an hour glass and watching the sand slowly run through the bottom; placing your feet in the sand by the ocean's edge and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves gradually bury them.

The “Counterpoints” by Steve Reich are perhaps the most distilled representation of this vision – soloists journeying through a slowly shifting landscape of overdubbed loops.

Audience members move through the venue at will, experiencing each of Reich’s iconic Counterpoints played on loop by our musicians stationed within the immersive exhibits. Each timed entry slot is 1 hour 15 minutes long (e.g. 7:00PM - 8:15PM) which is ample time to experience each performance.

Program

Cello Counterpoint
Vermont Counterpoint
Electric Counterpoint
New York Counterpoint

All works by Steve Reich

3A ARTISTS:

Sarah Tiedemann, flute
Will Pyle, soprano saxophone
Valdine Ritchie, cello

Guest Artists

Daniel Reyes Llinás, electric guitar