Your cart
Biography
Alex Taylor (b. 1988) has been commissioned and performed by prominent artists and ensembles in his native New Zealand and abroad, including Orchestra Wellington (NZ), NZTrio (NZ), Stephen de Pledge (NZ), Ben Hoadley (NZ), Abigail Sperling (NZ/US), Alexandra Smither (US/CA), Enso Quartet (US), Ensemble U (EE), Ensemble Proton Bern (CH), Kupka’s Piano (AUS), and the Tanglewood Music Center (US). He has received a number of awards, including the 2012 SOUNZ Contemporary Award, the 2013 CANZ Trust Fund Award, and a 2016 New Zealand Arts Foundation New Generation Award. Past residencies include the NZSO National Youth Orchestra Composer-in-Residence, Caselberg Trust Creative Connections Artist-in-Residence, and Composition Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center.
After studying English Literature and Music, Alex completed a Masters in Composition with First Class Honours under the Supervision of Eve de Castro-Robinson and John Elmsly in 2011. He is currently a PhD student at the University of California, San Diego. His compositional work often explores interactions between seemingly disparate materials, especially between ideas of the ‘canon’ and the avant-garde. His output includes works for orchestra, chamber music, songs, opera, music for theatre, and three concerti, for flute, bassoon and horn. He writes regularly for school and community groups, and a number of ensembles have won Best Performance of a New Zealand Work at the KBB Music Festival in Auckland performing his works.
As well as composing, Alex is also a multi-instrumentalist, poet, critic and music educator. He has written about music for the Pantograph Punch, Radio New Zealand, Canzona, Canzonetta, and his occasional music blog ‘the listener’. He has taught at Unitec, the University of Auckland, UC San Diego, and regularly gives pre-concert talks for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. He served for six years on the committee of CANZ, the Composers’ Association of New Zealand, and co-convened the Nelson Composers Workshop in 2014 and 2015. He was the artistic director of the Intrepid Music Project, and co-directed the performance group hear|say with Eve de Castro-Robinson. He has performed across a range of vocal and instrumental genres, including as lead vocalist for the Blackbird Ensemble, as violinist/saxophonist in the avant-Rock band Dr. Colossus, and as the Sorceress in his own recomposition of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Frances Moore’s Unstuck Opera.
Recent commissions include a flute concerto for Abigail Sperling, a double bass septet, and a violin trio for the Adam Chamber Music Festival. His violin-piano duo Three Endings is featured on Sarah Watkins and Andrew Beer’s 2019 Rattle release 11 Frames.
Composed (71)
a song cycle for countertenor, clarinet in B flat, 2 violins, viola and cello, 20m
Arranged (1)
Recordings (3)
Resources (21)
Interview
Performances (5)
Enjoy a myriad of single movements, like a tasting platter full of vibrant, piquant music from Sp...
Ben Hoadley | Turakirae for solo clarinet & orchestra [WORLD PREMIERE] Alex Taylor | Flute...
With a full orchestra and custom-made painting robot, composer __Alex Taylor__ and artist Simon I...
__This event has been postponed. We will update this page when more information is available.__ ...