Alvin Lucier, inquisitive and innovative composer, has died at 90

Alvin Lucier, the groundbreaking American composer and educator, died Wednesday at his home in Middletown, Conn. after a long illness. He was 90. Lucier changed the way we think about sound through monumental works like I Am Sitting in a Room and Music on a Long Thin Wire. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a little over a decade ago; NPR confirmed the news of his death with Amanda Lucier, his daughter.

Lucier was born May 14, 1931 in Nashua, N.H., to a musical family, an environment that, in time, led to his studies