Conlon Nancarrow

Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) was an American-born composer who spent most of his life in Mexico City and took Mexican citizenship in 1956. Because human performers struggled with what he wrote, he turned to the player piano and composed most of his mature music for it. His Studies for Player Piano use tempos and layered rhythms far beyond the reach of a pianist. Nancarrow was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, and studied with Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Nicolas Slonimsky. He fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and settled in Mexico in 1940.