The Desert Music by Steve Reich is an impressive choral and orchestral work that intertwines poetic language with the sense of threat and uncertainty of its time. The title and texts are drawn from William Carlos Williams, whose words Reich wove together into a vast, breathing sonic landscape, based on The Desert Music and Other Poems.

Yet there is more beneath that landscape: Reich deliberately chose texts from Williams’ post–Hiroshima and Nagasaki period, a time when “the bomb” cast its shadow over the world. The music reveals the collision between human dreams and desires and the questions posed by our conscience — a tension that lies at the heart of The Desert Music. The “desert” remains ambiguous: a real place, an inner void, or a vision of the future.

Led by The Hague concert hall Amare, the ensembles NKK, Klang, HIIIT, New European, and Het Muziek join forces to celebrate Reich’s 90th birthday with a performance of his magnum opus The Desert Music.

Earlier in the day, the Zing Dag (Sing Day) of the Nederlands Kamerkoor takes place, open to anyone who wishes to participate via the NKK website. In the evening, the Haags Toonkunstkoor surprises visitors in the foyer with a work by Anne-Maartje Lemereis (former Componist des Vaderlands), in which she leads the audience in song into the concert hall itself.