Concertwire.com

Recently acclaimed as one of the “Makers of the 20th Century” by the London Times, Terry Riley is one of the most influential composers and performers in contemporary music. His masterwork, In C, changed the course of music in the mid-1960s, introducing a new approach to tonality and new structural principles that projected kaleidoscopic, psychedelic atmospheres and represented a striking departure from the then established musical direction of the mid 20th century. An imaginative improviser, his recordings such as A Rainbow In Curved Air and Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, with their driving kinetic rhythms, also sent shockwaves across the contemporary music world ’ classical, rock and jazz. Riley’s music provided enormous inspiration to young composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams, and was also echoed in the popular music of the Who (their “Baba O’Riley” is a reference to Terry), Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, Soft Machine, Can, and many others. The Calder Quartet has a special relationship with composer Terry Riley, whom they met when they shared a concert as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival in 2006. During the Big Ears weekend, they will be performing a program of Riley’s string quartets, collaborating with the inimitable Andrew WK, and are promising more than a few additional surprises. We can’t wait!