Tony Conrad

Tony Conrad (1940–2016) was an American avant-garde musician, filmmaker, and artist whose work in the early 1960s helped establish drone music as a serious practice. He was a founding member of the Theatre of Eternal Music alongside La Monte Young, John Cale, Angus MacLise, and Marian Zazeela, where he played violin in extended, just-intonation drone performances. His contribution to that group, and his subsequent relationship with Young, became a source of lasting dispute over credits and recordings.

As a filmmaker, Conrad was equally significant.