Alex Weiser

Alex Weiser is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Biography

Weiser was born in New York City to a Jewish family. He attended Stuyvesant High School and Yale University, and received a master's degree in Music Theory and Composition from New York University. He studied with Paul Alan Levi, Martin Bresnick, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe among others.

Weiser's debut album, and all the days were purple, was released by Cantaloupe Music in April 2019. The album features singer Eliza Bagg singing songs set to poetry in Yiddish and English by poets including Anna Margolin, Rachel Korn, Abraham Sutzkever, Emily Dickinson, and William Carlos Williams. Probing contemporary Jewish identity, the album grew out of Weiser's work as the Director of Public Programs at the YIVO 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, 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's Cello Counterpoint, and water hollows stone for piano four hands, written for HOCKET Piano Duo.

In addition to his work as a composer and at YIVO, Weiser is co-founder and artistic director of Kettle Corn New Music, and worked for about five years as the Director of Operations and Development at the MATA Festival.