Gyan Riley

Gyan Riley won his first guitar in a raffle when he was 12 years old. Shortly after learning all of the songs in his cassette collection by ear, he became the first full-scholarship graduate guitar student at the San Francisco Conservatory. Gyan’s diverse work now focuses on his own compositions, improvisation, and contemporary classical repertoire. Gyan has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, New Music USA, the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the American Composers Forum, and the New York Guitar Festival.

He has performed with Zakir Hussain, Lou Reed, John Zorn, the Kronos Quartet, Iva Bittova, the Bang-On-A-Can All-Stars, the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, and his father, the composer/pianist/vocalist Terry Riley. Various tours have taken him throughout Europe, Canada, Latin America and the US, both as a soloist and in various ensembles.

Gyan resides in New York City and frequently performs with the duo Probosci, the trio Eviyan, and the electric guitar quartet Dither. Gyan has four solo CD titles and many ensemble/collaborative recordings, most recently working with the Tzadik Records label in New York.

This page was last updated in November 2020.