Terry Riley launched the movement now known as Minimalism with his revolutionary composition In C in 1964. This seminal work provided a new concept in musical for based on interlocking repetitive patterns and went on to change the course of music in the 20th century. In a career now spanning eight decades, his influence is felt in nearly every corner of the world of music. 

A composer and improviser of great breadth, Riley’s works include chamber music, tape loops, works for large orchestra, electronic keyboard improvisations, choirs, explorations of hindustani ragas, sound installations, scores for film and theater, solo pieces for various instruments as well as countless compositions for piano.

Among his closest musical associations are his lifelong friendship with La Monte Young, in whose Theatre of Eternal Music he performed in 1965; his discipleship under Pandit Pran Nath, the Hindustani vocal master he accompanied on tabla, vocal, and tanpura for more than twenty-five years; his forty-five-year partnership with the Kronos Quartet, for whom he has composed thirteen string quartets; and his continuing duo work with his son, the guitarist Gyan Riley.

Terry Riley’s impact has changed the course of music, and his influence is clearly heard in the works of prominent composers including Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams.

His hypnotic, polymetric, eastern flavored improvisations and compositions set the stage for widespread interest in a new tonality.  He has lived in Yamanashi, Japan, since 2020. In 2025 he marked his ninetieth birthday with a new recordings with Sara Miyamoto, the same year Sony Classical issued The Columbia Recordings, a box set gathering his major works of 1968 to 1980. Riley was listed in the London Times as “one of the 1000 makers of the 20th Century.”

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