Biography

ALEX GLASS (b. 2000) is a New York City-based composer, pianist, improviser, and educator who creates thoughtful, emotionally powerful music while exploring and dissolving boundaries between musical practices. A composer since the age of seven, Alex has developed a compositional style influenced by classical piano repertoire, jazz harmonic and melodic language, odd rhythms and meters, and innovative textures and timbres.

Alex has had the opportunity to work with prestigious ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Argus Quartet, Ensemble Chartreuse, SPLICE Ensemble, Temple University New Music Ensemble, Temple Composer’s Orchestra, and the Mannes Orchestra, and he has received performances of numerous other chamber, vocal, electroacoustic, and solo piano works. Alex’s recent distinctions include a publication by North Star Music of Songs for Lewis Carroll, a 28-minute dramatic song cycle for baritone and piano, and the Martinu Prize, awarded for his original orchestral composition The World Inside.

As a pianist, Alex is well-versed in both the classical and jazz tradition, having studied classical piano with Dr. Clipper Erickson and jazz piano with Tim Brey in Philadelphia. He has performed in numerous school concerts as an interpreter of new music, championing music by fellow student composers, as well as in various jazz venues, ensembles, pit orchestras, and charity events in the Philadelphia and New York City area. Alex is also a passionate educator, holding a private piano and guitar studio at Grace Music Center in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. Alex is a co-founder of The Big Lemon Collective, a composer-performer collective based in New York City dedicated to intentional, participatory music making, a member of the upstart electronic synthpop group X_AN_AX, and the keyboardist for Nishad Band, a Bollywood/jazz fusion cover band based in South Jersey.

Alex graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in composition from Boyer College at Temple University, and he received his Master’s degree in composition at the Mannes School of Music, where he studied with Timo Andres. Outside of music, Alex enjoys geography, history, recreational mathematics, long walks and bike rides, advocating for public transit, and constantly exploring new places.