Seth Colter Walls on Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble

"The best performances of Terry Riley's 1964 minimalist classic In C come off like great sex. … So it's fitting that Riley's piece can still shock on its 45th anniversary, this time courtesy of a two-disc set titled In C Remixed. Even more shocking: the album is conceived by Bill Ryan and his students at Michigan's Grand Valley State University. Yes, you read correctly. This new version comes not from loft-based hipsters in New York or California, but via a mostly undergraduate crew from Allendale, Mich. … The members of Grand Valley State's ensemble play with a confident swing. … [T]his new release offers not just their own astute performance but also 18 remixes by a collection of big names. The fact that most of these diverse visions of In C succeed ought to say something to those who worry about what the future audience for classical music will look like. This isn't Grand Valley's first success, either: it proved its mettle in 2007 by releasing a lush version of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. The album cover for that recording featured a bird's-eye view of an agrarian expanse — as if signaling a flight from the world of philharmonics to one of plowshares. To put it another way, these kids are a trip" ("Music," Newsweek, 10/12/09, p. 58).