Conlon Nancarrow

b 1912 in Texarkana, Arkansas (USA)— 1997 died in Mexico City; 1930 studies at Cincinnati College Conservatory; 1934 moves to Boston, where he studies with Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, Nicolas Slonimsky, and meets Schönberg; joins the Communist Party; 1936 plays jazz in Europe; 1937 enlists in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and goes to fight in Spain; 1938 publication of his first works in the U.S.; 1939 after Franco's victory, Nancarrow makes his escape from Valencia and moves to New York; 1940 flees to Mexico City because of the McCarthy trials; 1947 in New York City he buys a player piano and has a punching machine made to punch player-piano rolls; 1948 returns to Mexico and becomes a Mexican citizen in 1955; 1960 Merce Cunningham begins to choreograph Nancarrow's compositions and takes them on a world tour in 1964. His approx. «50 Studies for Player Piano» explore the musical potential of the mechanical in every way.