Alex Weiser is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Biography

Weiser was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. He attended

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School (pronounced ), commonly referred to among its students as Stuy (pronounced ), is a State school, public university-preparatory school, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, and received a master's degree in Music Theory and Composition from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. He studied with

Paul Alan Levi Paul Alan Levi (born June 30, 1941, in New York City) is an American composer whose compositions have been performed in Carnegie Hall, among other major venues in United States and Europe, as well as on national television. He is the composer of th ...

Martin Bresnick Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music. Education and early career Bresnick grew up in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Ar ...

, Michael Gordon, and

Julia Wolfe Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are re ...

among others. Weiser's debut album, ''and all the days were purple'', was released by

Cantaloupe Music Cantaloupe Music is a Brooklyn-based record label that produces and releases contemporary classical music and other forms of avant-garde music. The label was founded in 2001 by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Kenny Savelson. Gordon ...

in April 2019, and was named a 2020 Finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

. The album features singer Eliza Bagg singing songs set to poetry in Yiddish and English by poets including Anna Margolin,

Rachel Korn Rachel (Rokhl) Häring Korn ( yi, רחל קאָרן, 15 January 1898 – 9 September 1982) was a Polish-born Canadian Yiddish language poet and author. In total, she published eight collections of poetry and two of prose. Seymour Mayne characteriz ...

Abraham Sutzkever Abraham Sutzkever ( yi, אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער, Avrom Sutskever; he, אברהם סוצקבר; July 15, 1913 – January 20, 2010) was an acclaimed Yiddish poet. ''The New York Times'' wrote that Sutzkever was "the greatest poet o ...

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both ped ...

. Probing contemporary Jewish identity, the album grew out of Weiser's work as the Director of Public Programs at the

YIVO YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

Institute for Jewish Research. Other of Weiser's works explore Jewish themes as well including an opera, ''State of the Jews'', which is a historical drama about

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern pol ...

, and ''after shir hashirim'' for chamber orchestra which takes its inspiration from the biblical Song of Songs. Common themes in Weiser's work also include death and transience as exemplified by his work ''Three Epitaphs''. Other major works have included ''shimmer'' for eight spatially arrayed cellos written for and recorded by Ashley Bathgate as a companion piece to

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, ...

's ''Cello Counterpoint'', and ''water hollows stone'' for piano four hands, written for

HOCKET In music, hocket is the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds whil ...

. In addition to his work as a composer and at YIVO, Weiser is co-founder and artistic director of

Kettle Corn New Music A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...

, and worked for about five years as the Director of Operations and Development at the

MATA Festival The MATA Festival is a New York-based annual contemporary classical music festival devoted to championing the works of young composers. It was founded in 1996 by Philip Glass, Lisa Bielawa and Eleonor Sandresky and is currently under the leaders ...

.
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References

External links

*
Artist Page, Cantaloupe Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiser, Alex Year of birth missing (living people) Musicians from New York City Living people Stuyvesant High School alumni Yale University alumni New York University alumni Male opera composers 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians American classical composers American male classical composers American opera composers Jewish American classical composers Jewish opera composers Jewish classical composers 21st-century American Jews