Patricia Alessandrini (born 1970) is an American composer, sound artist, and musicologist. A 2022

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

and 2024 MacDowell Fellow, Alessandrini specializes in

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

. She is also an academic who specializes in the interdisciplinary study of music and technology, having worked in the faculty of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by ...

Early life and music career

Patricia Alessandrini was born in 1970 in the United States. She attended

Bologna Conservatory The Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini (previously known as the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and better known in English as the Bologna Conservatory) is a college of music in Bologna, Italy. The conservatory opened on 3 December 1804, as the L ...

Conservatoire de Strasbourg The Conservatoire de Strasbourg is a music conservatory located in Strasbourg, France. The school has about 1800 students. History of the Conservatory of Strasbourg The school was created using funds given to the city of Strasbourg by arts pat ...

, and

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of Avant-garde music, avant garde and Electroacoustic ...

;

Ivan Fedele Ivan Fedele (born 6 May 1953 in Lecce) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory. Fedele's compositions are published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, and many of his works are recorded on Stradivarius Records. Selected works ; ...

Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the " spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His f ...

, and

Thea Musgrave Thea Musgrave Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 27 May 1928) is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972. Biography Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Barnton, Edinburgh, Mus ...

were her composition teachers. As an artist, Alessandrini specializes in electronic music and sound art, as well as social and political issues and the reexamination of canonical works. She won first prize in the 2009 Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition and a 2012

Darmstädter Ferienkurse Darmstädter Ferienkurse ("Darmstadt Summer Course") is a regular summer event of contemporary classical music in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1946, under the name "Ferienkurse für Internationale Neue Musik Darmstadt" (Vacation Co ...

''Förderpreis'' in composition. She also worked as composer-in-residence at the 2010 soundSCAPE festival, as well as the

International Contemporary Ensemble The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a contemporary classical music ensemble, based in New York City. ICE performs a diverse and extensive array of chamber, electro-acoustic, improvisatory, and multimedia works. History The Internati ...

(2012) and the Ensemble intercontemporain (2015-2016). In 2022, Alessandrini was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in Music Composition. In 2023, her album ''Leçons de ténèbres'', performed by Riot Ensemble, was released from Huddersfield Contemporary Records;

Arnold Whittall Arnold Whittall (born 1935) is a British musicologist and academic. Whittall's research areas have primarily been centred around the musical analysis of 20th-century music and aspects of the nineteenth-century, such as the music of Richard Wagner. ...

said of that album: "In not providing a more diverse selection of Alessandrini’s many compositions, this album underlines the austere parameters that result from her formidably disciplined manipulation of febrile emotions." In a 2024 review for the ''Edinburgh Music Review'', Simon Barrow praised her piece "Il y a plus d’eau que prévu sur la lune" as "cleverly crafted". She was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship in 2024. She is a 2024-2025 Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at the

Harvard Radcliffe Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

Academic career

Alessandrini obtained her PhD at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 2008; her doctoral dissertation ''Temporal Problematics Raised by Two Metric Versions of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VII: AComputer-Assisted Analysis and its Implications for Computer-Aided Composition'' was supervised by Scott Burnham and

Perry R. Cook Perry R. Cook (born September 25, 1955) is an American computer music researcher and professor emeritus of computer science and music at Princeton University. He was also founder and head of the Princeton Sound Lab. Cook has worked in the areas o ...

. She later went to Northern Ireland for another PhD at the

Sonic Arts Research Centre A networked music performance or network musical performance is a real-time interaction over a computer network that enables musicians in different locations to perform as if they were in the same room. These interactions can include performances, ...

, with her dissertation ''Composition as interpretation through performative electronics'' (2014) being supervised by Pedro Rebelo and Maarten Van Walstijn. As an academic, Alessandrini researches

computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...

, digital performance, embodied interaction, and

instrument design Instrument may refer to: Science and technology * Flight instruments, the devices used to measure the speed, altitude, and pertinent flight angles of various kinds of aircraft * Laboratory equipment, the measuring tools used in a scientific lab ...

. She has also worked as an associate professor at

Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

, as well as a lecturer in sonic arts at

. Her teaching career also includes technological composition courses at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese and at

Bangor University Bangor University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal charter, Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 ...

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alessandrini, Patricia 1970 births Living people American women classical composers 21st-century American classical composers 21st-century American women composers Electronic composers American women musicologists 21st-century American musicologists American sound artists Women sound artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists Stanford University faculty Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London Princeton University alumni Alumni of Queen's University Belfast MacDowell Colony fellows American expatriate academics in the United Kingdom American expatriates in Northern Ireland