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La Monte Young

La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in post-war avant-garde music.[1][2] He is best known for his exploration of sustained tones, beginning with his 1958 composition Trio for Strings.[3] His compositions have called into question the nature and definition of music, most prominently in the text scores of his Compositions 1960. While few of his recordings remain in print, his work has inspired prominent musicians across various genres, including avant-garde, rock, and ambient music.[4] Young played jazz saxophone and studied composition in California during the 1950s, and subsequently moved to New York in 1960, where he was a central figure in the downtown music and Fluxus art scenes.[5] He then became known for his pioneering work in drone music (originally called dream music) with his Theatre of Eternal Music collective, alongside collaborators such as Tony Conrad, John Cale, and his wife, the multimedia artist Marian Zazeela. In 1964, he began work on his unfinished improvisatory composition The Well-Tuned Piano, iterations of which he has performed throughout subsequent decades.[6] Young worked extensively with Zazeela between 1962 and her death in 2024; together, the two recorded, performed live, and developed the Dream House sound and light environment.

Also recorded as La Monte Thornton Young

La Monte Young

Book cover for An Anthology of Chance Operations (1963) by La Monte Young and Jackson Mac Low.

La Monte Young, Jason Mac Low, etc. · Public domain

Born
1935 · Bern.
Nationality
United States
Occupation
composer · artist · musician
Fields
experimental music
Movements
Fluxus
Education
University of California and Los Angeles · Los Angeles City College · John Marshall High School · UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Teachers
Seymour Shifrin
Honours
Guggenheim Fellowship · Courage Award for the Arts
Languages
English

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gnd · 134414909X · wikidata · Q432822 · wikipedia · La Monte Young

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Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

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In this article

  1. 01Biography
  2. 02Work and thought
  3. 03Reception, influence and legacy
  4. 04Recordings and discography
  5. 05Archives and collections
  6. 06Bibliography and scholarly literature
  7. 07Notes, references and evidence

The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.

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