Conlon Nancarrow (b. October 27, 1912, Texarkana - d. August 10, 1997, Mexico City) was an American-born composer who lived most of his life in Mexico. Nancarrow is remembered almost exclusively for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use musical instruments as mechanical machines, utilising their capacity to play complex polyrhythms at tempos far beyond human performance ability.
Mauricio Kagel (born in Buenos Aires, December 24, 1931, died in Cologne, September 18, 2008) was an Argentine composer who has lived in Germany for most of his career. He was most famous for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance. Many of his pieces give specific theatrical instructions to the performers, such as to adopt certain facial expressions while playing, to make their stage entrances in a particular way, to physically interact with other performers and so on.
Takehisa Kosugi (????; surname Kosugi; b. Tokyo, Japan, 1938) is a Japanese composer and performer working in the field of contemporary classical music. He is associated with the Fluxus movement, worked with John Cage and David Tudor, and has served as music director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He was also a member of Taj Mahal Travellers. His primary instrument is the violin. Kogusi studied musicology at the Tokyo University of Arts, graduating in 1962. During this period he began multi-instrumental improvisation.