Dadaism
Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland, in the midst of World War I. Several expatriate artists converged in the city to escape the brutal and seemingly…
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Ellington, Duke (1899–1974)
Duke Ellington was an American jazz composer, pianist, and big-band leader who authored over 1,000 compositions throughout his career. Having studied piano since the age…
Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1892–1988)
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, pianist, music critic, and writer about music mainly associated with large-scale works for the piano lasting several hours…
Gould, Glenn (1932–1982)
Glenn Gould was a twentieth-century pianist born in Toronto in 1932. Among his major influences were the recordings of Artur Schnabel (1882–1951), who specialized in…
Lavista, Mario (1943–)
Composer, pianist, intellectual, editor, and teacher Mario Lavista is regarded as a central figure in Mexico’s contemporary music scene. A prolific composer of orchestral, stage,…
Lachenmann, Helmut (Friedrich) (1935--)
One of the most influential composers to emerge from Germany following the post-war avant-garde movement, Helmut Lachenmann has remained committed to the legacy of integral…
Mather, Bruce (1939--)
Bruce Mather is a Canadian composer. He first studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto (1952–57) and at the University of Toronto…
Vivier, Claude (1948–1983)
Claude Vivier is perhaps the best known of all Quebec composers, both in Canada and abroad. In 1967, after being removed from the religious establishment…
Gandini, Gerardo (1936–2013)
Gerardo Gandini was an Argentinean composer and pianist. Disciple and assistant of Alberto Ginastera in the late 1950s and 1960s, he obtained international recognition for…
Monk, Thelonious (1917–1982)
Thelonious Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. One of the earliest performers in the bebop movement of modern jazz dating from the mid-twentieth…
Carter, Elliott (Cook Jr.) (1908–2012)
Born in 1908 into a wealthy New York City family, Elliott Carter enjoyed a cosmopolitan childhood, spending time in Europe and learning French at an…
Antheil George (1900–1959)
George Johann Carl Antheil was an American composer, pianist, author, and inventor. He is best-known for his 1924 composition, Ballet Mechanique, originally scored for sixteen…
Mathieu, Rodolphe (1890–1962)
Rodolphe Mathieu (1890–1962) was pianist, composer and pedagogue and played a role too often ignored in the musical scene of his time. His music is…
Katunda, Eunice de Monte Lima (1915–1990)
Eunice de Monte Lima Katunda was a Brazilian pianist, composer, conductor, and educator. She was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1915 and died in…
Fairburn, A.R.D. (Arthur Rex Dugard) (1904–1957)
A.R.D. Fairburn was a New Zealand poet, essayist, journalist, and painter who, with other poet-countrymen, cultivated a national identity as distinct from that of a…
Zorn, John (1953--)
John Zorn is an American avant-garde saxophonist and composer. Zorn performs on alto saxophone and is one of the leading figures in New York City’s…
Coleman, Ornette (1930--)
Ornette Coleman is an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. Coleman is considered one of the founders of the avant-garde movement in jazz, which he…
Héctor Tosar (1923–2002)
Héctor Tosar was a composer, pianist, director, and composition teacher in Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the United States. One of the best-known Uruguayan composers…
Walden, Herwarth (1878–1941)
Herwarth Walden was the force behind Der Sturm, an avant-garde journal, gallery, performance venue, bookstore and theater school in Berlin (1910–1932). Walden’s first wife, the…
Adaskin, Murray (1906–2002)
Born in Toronto, Ontario and passing in Victoria, British Columbia, Murray Adaskin was a violinist, composer, and academic whose music was widely performed in Canada.…
Parade
A one-act ballet on the theme of a fairground sideshow, Parade was produced by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and premiered on May 18, 1917 at…
Moudarres, Fateh al- (1922–1999)
Fateh al-Moudarres is considered a leader among Syria’s generation of modernist painters born in the 1920s. Because of his early participation in literary salons, his…
Kagel, Mauricio Raúl (1931–2008)
Mauricio Raúl Kagel was an Argentine-German composer. One of the most influential composers of the post-war European avant-garde, Kagel was instrumental during the development from…
Carrillo (Trujillo), Julián (1875--1965)
Julián Carrillo is recognized as one of the first microtonal composers in the Western art music tradition. His experiments with microtones (intervals smaller than the…
Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie (1866–1925)
Erik Satie’s compositions, writings, and humor played an important role in many modernist movements of the twentieth century. Experimenting with simple forms, neoclassicism, mysticism, satire,…