About

Alexander Wright is a composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He has composed for a wide variety of ensembles, including off/stage, a mono-opera for soprano and piano premiered in 2019, the tone poem Valkyrie’s Day Off, a commission from the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Orchestra, and the guitar and flute piece The Shape in Grove Park, in collaboration with the Okapi Duo. His string quartet Walking Through Walls, and Other Impossible Tasks, was premiered during Refugee Week at Stirling University by the Edinburgh Quartet in 2019. He collaborated with composers Seth Climenhaga and Travis Golem to write music for Maxie Liberman’s This is Not a Musical: The Musical!, which won Best of Venue and Best of Festival and the Hamilton Fringe Festival 2017.

His work in electronic music is generally focused on either narrated acousmatic music, or in live electroacoustic improvisation. He performed the premiere of landscapes no. 1 (for pink guitar) during the 21st Century Guitar conference in August 2019 at the University of Ottawa. His fixed media work obfuscation was selected as part of the Sound Thought festival in February 2019.

He is deeply invested in musical outreach, having worked in a variety of student-led educational and administrative positions, and has a special passion for bringing modern music to the broader community. He has worked with students of a variety of ages, in both the classroom and as an instructor for community student bands and music camps. He currently teaches piano, songwriting, and composition at the Renaissance School of the Arts in Waterloo. His band Adult Recreation Centre released the single “Hanging On” in the first half of 2020.

He studied composition with Linda Catlin Smith and Colin Labadie, and holds an honours degree in music composition and a Masters in Community Music from Wilfrid Laurier University. He also holds a Master degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he studied with David Fennessey.

Email: awrightcomposer@gmail.com