Julius Eastman

Julius Eastman (October 27, 1940 – May 28, 1990) was an African-American composer, pianist, singer and dancer. He is a minimalist.
Life.
Eastman grew up in Ithaca, New York. He began piano at age 14. He studied piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, with Mieczyslaw Horszowski and composition with Constant Vauclain.
In 1970, Eastman joined the Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo, where he met the Czech-born composer, conductor, and flute player Petr Kotik. Eastman and Kotik played together in the early to mid 1970s. Eastman was a maker of the S.E.M. Ensemble. From 1971 he performed and traveled with the group.
He died alone in Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, New York of heart problems. No attention was given to his death until an obituary in the "Village Voice" by Kyle Gannon January 22, 1991, eight months after he died.