Steve Reich Honored with Juilliard President's Medal

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Juilliard students performed Reich's compositions at THE NEW SERIES | STEVE REICH @ 90, with the composer participating in a Q&A following the performance.

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Juilliard president Damian Woetzel presented alum and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Steve Reich ('61, composition) with the Juilliard President's Medal on Tuesday evening, September 22, prior to a concert celebrating Reich's 90th year. The President's Medal recognizes individuals who have made an indelible impact on the arts and served as significant role models at Juilliard and in the broader performing arts community.

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The medal presentation preceded The New Series | Steve Reich @ 90, a concert featuring Juilliard students performing works by the renowned composer. Reich also spent time speaking with Juilliard music students before the concert, sharing reflections on his life and work with the next generation of composers and musicians. Following the performance, he joined David Serkin Ludwig, dean and director of the Music Division and chair of the Composition Department, for a Q&A, offering further insight into his music and enduring creative practice.

Reich, who studied composition at Juilliard and received an honorary doctorate in 2009, has had a profound influence on generations of artists at Juilliard and around the world. With pulse, precision, and a new vocabulary, he has changed, and continues to change, classical and popular music with his hypnotic and inventive compositional voice.

“You have transformed the possibilities of music itself, establishing a unique artistic language whose influence has reached far beyond concert halls,” said Woetzel, conferring the honor. “At Juilliard, your example has a special resonance. You've shown generations of young artists that originality can emerge from discipline and curiosity, that listening can itself be a form of discovery, and that among a composer's deepest contributions can be changing the way others understand what music can be.”

The Juilliard President's Medal was established in 2005, and the medal itself was created by renowned graphic designer Milton Glaser. This marks the third President's Medal bestowed by Woetzel during his tenure, having previously awarded the medal to civil rights icon and one-time Juilliard student Clarence B. Jones in 2020, and choreographer and founder of the Table of Silence Project Jacqulyn Buglisi in 2022.

Steve Reich has been called “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker) and “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times). Starting in the 1960s, his pieces It's Gonna Rain, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Different Trains, and many others helped shift the aesthetic center of musical composition worldwide away from extreme complexity and toward rethinking pulsation and tonal attraction in new ways. He continues to influence younger generations of composers and mainstream musicians and artists all over the world.

Double Sextet won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 and Different Trains, Music for 18 Musicians, and an album of his percussion works have all earned Grammy Awards. He received the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo, the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Madrid, the Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall, and the Gold Medal in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France and awarded honorary doctorates by the Royal College of Music in London, the Juilliard School in New York, and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, among others.

One of the most frequently choreographed composers, several noted choreographers have created dances to his music, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylián, Jerome Robbins, Justin Peck, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Millepied, and Christopher Wheeldon.

Reich's documentary video opera works—The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot—opened new directions for music theater and have been performed on four continents. His work Quartet, for percussionist Colin Currie, sold out two consecutive concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London shortly after tens of thousands at the Glastonbury Festival heard Jonny Greenwood (of Radiohead) perform Electric Counterpoint, followed by the London Sinfonietta performing his Music for 18 Musicians. “There's just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them,” wrote The Guardian.

Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school's mission is to cultivate excellence through the highest caliber of education in music, dance, and drama for gifted students from around the world, so they may achieve their fullest potential, expanding the reach and elevating the impact of the arts. Juilliard is led by Damian Woetzel, seventh president of the school, who has prioritized affordability and access to the highest level of artistic education while championing Juilliard's tradition of excellence.

Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). More than 800 artists from 42 states and 50 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard's College Division, where they appear in more than 1,000 annual performances in the school's five theaters; at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the U.S., and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division—Pre-College and Music Advancement Program (MAP); MAP serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 1,200 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K–12 educational curricula and preparatory and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Steve-Reich-Awarded-Juilliard-Presidents-Medal-20260923)._