Richard Maxfield

Richard Maxfield (USA, 1927) graduated from Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley and then learned electronic tape music in Europe and chance music from John Cage. Richard Maxfield became an organizer of Fluxus events, collaborated with Lamonte Young and was one of the first composers to build his own studio for electronic music, where pieces like the Pastoral Symphony (1960) and the "plunderphonic" collage Amazing Grace (1960) were created. He also composed the 12-minute Piano Concert for David Tudor (1961) for prepared piano. He taught electronic music at San Francisco State University in 1966-67. He killed himself in 1969.