Canadian-Argentinean pianist and composer alcides lanza is internationally renowned for his avant-garde approach to percussion, electroacoustics, and music theatre in works such as eidesis II, sensors III, un mundo imaginario, and vôo. Director of the Electronic Music Studio at McGill University since 1974, lanza was recognized by the Organization of American States with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and by the Canada Council for the Arts with the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in 2003.

In the first full-length biography of one of Canada's most gifted and influential composers, Pamela Jones draws from extensive interviews with composers, performers, students, friends, and family members. She offers an analysis of lanza's key compositions and discusses his musical development in a vivid portrayal of the social, cultural, and political milieus in which he worked - from the difficulties of composing under a repressive government in 1950s Argentina to the "anything goes" atmosphere of New York in the 1960s, the post-war cultural revival in Berlin, and the multicultural diversity of Montreal.

alcides lanza is a rich and compelling account of the composer's passion and an important and insightful commentary on contemporary music in the second half of the twentieth century.