La Monte Young is an American composer, born on 14 October 1935 in Bern, Idaho, and one of the founding figures of drone music. His Trio for Strings of 1958, a work of long held tones lasting around three hours, is often cited as one of the first pieces of musical minimalism. After moving to New York he took part in Fluxus events, then gathered the Theatre of Eternal Music, a loose ensemble that over the 1960s included Marian Zazeela, Tony Conrad, John Cale, Angus MacLise and, briefly, Terry Riley.
In 1970 he and Zazeela became disciples of the Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath, whose influence ran through the rest of his work. With Zazeela he developed the Dream House, a continuous environment of sound and light: touring versions appeared between 1969 and 1975, a Dia-supported space ran on Harrison Street from 1979 to 1985, and the Church Street Dream House in Lower Manhattan has been open since 1993. The Well-Tuned Piano, begun in 1964, became his central work of the following decades.