John Cage

American musician and composer, writer, photographer, reporter, and critic, always avant-garde. Eclectically talented and endlessly enchanted by the mystery and beauty of the commonplace, he wrote essays and reviews, scores and sketches. He was also a photographer and journalist noted for raucous multimedia works.

The son of an inventor, he was raised in Los Angeles and attended Pomona college before dropping out to go to Europe. While there, he began to write music, much of which he threw away. Back in Los Angeles, he began to compose, a period in which he was very enthusiastic about both modern painting and music. It was at the time of the Depression, and he worked as a gardener in exchange for housing.

His first piano teacher was Richard Buhlig, a great pianist, and he also studied with Henry Cowell. When Cage wrote a solo for clarinet, Cowell arranged to have it played at a small concert in San Francisco. Cage hitchhiked to San Francisco, and when the musician said it was too difficult for him to play, Cage played his piece on the piano for the audience.

Moving to Carmel with no money and no job, he lived on wild mushrooms for his first week before taking a job washing dishes in the Blueberry Tea Room. The food was welcome but the work boring, so he left for New York to study with Adolph Weiss. After his lesson, he and Weiss played bridge with another couple every night. For work, he was washing walls at the YWCA.

Cage spent the last 50 years of his life in New York City, often in the company of his lifelong companion, dancer Merce Cunningham, for whom he wrote many pieces. As his creativity developed, he moved into his role as an extraordinarily important American composer. A documentary, "Cage/Cunningham," about the long collaboration between the composer and the choreographer was filmed by Elliot Caplan and featured interviews, archival dance footage and music from the various project the two artist created.