Terry Riley is an American composer and performer, born on 24 June 1935 in Colfax, California. Around 1960 he began working with spliced and looped tape, and in November 1964 his In C, a set of short repeated figures played over a steady pulse, was premiered at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, becoming a founding work of minimalism.
After moving to New York in 1965 he sang for some months in La Monte Young’s ensemble, and around 1967 he gave his first all-night solo concerts, a largely improvised approach also heard on A Rainbow in Curved Air (1968). From 1970 he studied Hindustani singing in New Delhi with Pandit Pran Nath, returning to India regularly until his teacher’s death in 1996. A meeting with David Harrington at Mills College led to a long series of works for the Kronos Quartet, including Salome Dances for Peace and Sun Rings.