Terry Riley

A pioneering force of American minimalism, performing composer Terry Riley eventually extended his musical vision to the cosmic. Riley was born in Colfax, California, in 1935 and studied composition in San Francisco, where he performed his earliest work at the San Francisco Tape Music Center. While the delayed tape loops of his 1963 debut, Music for the Gift, laid the groundwork for electronic dance music, Riley's most popular composition remains In C. Released in 1968, minimalism's first masterpiece involves any number of musicians improvising upon 53 short phrases. The following year's equally influential A Rainbow in Curved Air found Riley radiantly improvising trancelike phrases on overdubbed keyboards and percussion. Extended studies with Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath beginning in 1970 added a spiritual dimension to Riley's oeuvre. After moving away from influential ’70s electronic works like Shri Camel, he returned to relatively traditional compositional styles in works like 2002's Sun Rings—written for the Kronos Quartet with added vocal chorus and outer-space sounds—and eventually came full circle to concoct ”G Song” for Kronos on the occasion of his 80th birthday.