Clockwise from top left: DJ Kool Herc, Patti Smith, the Fania All-Stars, Talking Heads at CBGB, Laurie Anderson and her viophonograph. From 'Love Goes to Buildings on Fire'/Courtesy of Cindy Campbell, Columbia Records, Fania Records, Robert Spencer, Laurie Anderson hide caption
Composer Steve Reich, who turned 80 on Oct. 3. Carolyn Cole/LA Times via Getty Images hide caption
Osmo Vänskä conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in Havana, Cuba in May 2015. Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Steve Reich, with a phase-shifting pulse gate, photographed in New York in 1969. Nonesuch hide caption
Four Organs by Steve Reich was performed Tuesday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the 50th anniversary of the Nonesuch label (from left: Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, David Cossin, Timo Andres and Steve Reich). Stephanie Berger hide caption
Members of ACME (violinists Caroline Shaw and Ben Russell, violist Nadia Sirota and cellist Clarice Jensen) dug into Steve Reich's Different Trains to open their performance, recorded live on Sept. 11, 2012. AJ Wilhelm for NPR hide caption
Over four decades, the Kronos quartet (from left, John Sherba, Sunny Yang, Hank Dutt and David Harrington) has premiered more than 800 pieces. Jay Blakesberg hide caption
Some of the 200 guitarists who took part in Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail at Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Festival in August 2009. YouTube hide caption
