Stephen Michael Reich (/raɪʃ/ RYSH; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal musicin the mid to late 1960s.

Reich’s work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. His innovations include using tape loops to create phasingpatterns, as on the early compositions It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966), and the use of simple, audible processes, as on Pendulum Music(1968) and Four Organs (1970). The 1978 recording Music for 18 Musicians would help entrench minimalism as a movement. Reich’s work took on a darker character in the 1980s with the introduction of historical themes as well as themes from his Jewish heritage, notably Different Trains (1988).

Reich’s style of composition has influenced many contemporary composers and groups, especially in the US. Writing in The Guardian, music critic Andrew Clements suggested that Reich is one of “a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history”.