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Terry Jennings was born in Eagle Rock, California on July 19, 1940. Showing an early interest in music, he began playing the piano at the age of four, was taught by both of his parents, and by the age of 12 was studying John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. In junior high school Jennings was a featured clarinet soloist with the orchestra. He also made arrangements of Stravinsky piano pieces so that the orchestra would have music to play that he liked. He attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, the alma mater of composer La Monte Young, whom Jennings met in 1953. Jennings played and studied with Young and was greatly influenced by him. In 1954, at the age of 14, Jennings entered the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Art where he studied saxophone with William Green. It was in 1957 that he met Dennis Johnson, another composer who was not just an influence on him, but also a great appreciator of his music. In addition to his study of composition with La Monte Young, he also studied with Robert Erickson at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Leonard Stein at the California Institute of the Arts.
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