Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981) was an English experimental music composer who studied at the recently established Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne and served as an assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1958 to 1960. This early exposure to European avant-garde composition gave way to a radical rethinking of music's social and political possibilities. In 1969 he founded the Scratch Orchestra with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons — an experimental performing ensemble open to musicians and non-musicians alike.