La Monte Young

La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American avant-garde artist, composer and musician, generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works are cited as notable examples of post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is especially known for his exploration of drone music. Both his proto-Fluxus and "minimal" compositions question the nature and definition of music and often stress elements of performance art.

Life

Born in Bern, Idaho, Young and his family moved several times in childhood, as his father searched for work before settling in Los Angeles, California. He was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He graduated from John Marshall High School and studied at Los Angeles City College. In the jazz milieu of Los Angeles, Young played with notable musicians including Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins.

He undertook further studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he received a BA in 1958, then at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1958 to 1960. In 1959 he attended the summer courses at Darmstadt under Karlheinz Stockhausen, and in 1960 relocated to New York in order to study electronic music with Richard Maxfield at the New School for Social Research. His compositions during this period were influenced by Anton Webern, Gregorian chant, Indian classical music, Gagaku, and Indonesian gamelan music.