Short Bio

Alexander sitting in front of a controller and a laptop in a concert

Alexander Wu is a composer, improviser, pianist, and programmer based in the Bay Area. He is interested in far-fetched logic, misplaced memories, profaned tools, and sometimes-disappointing sounds. He likes the tension of a body refusing to be mechanized, and a machine refusing to become a body.

吴缺，作曲人，也演奏即兴音乐、弹钢琴、制作电子音乐、编程。住在美国湾区。他的兴趣包括：牵强的逻辑、误置的记忆、被亵渎的工具、有时令人失望的声音。他喜欢身体与机器拒绝成为对方的拉扯。

Long Bio

Alexander Wu is a composer, improviser, pianist, and programmer based in the Bay Area. He is interested in far-fetched logic, misplaced memories, profaned tools, and sometimes-disappointing sounds. He likes the tension of a body refusing to be mechanized, and a machine refusing to become a body.

Alexander playing the piano behind plants, shea butter, and a few books titled “Sellout” placed on black shelves

Alexander is currently pursuing his DMA in Composition at Stanford University. Previously, he received his master’s degree in Composition from Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and his bachelor’s degree in Composition and Electronic Production and Design from Berklee College of Music. His mentors include Sky Macklay, Gabriele Vanoni, and Marti Epstein. At Peabody, he received the P. Bruce Blair Composition Award (2025), and at Berklee, he received the Jeronimas Kačinskas Composition Award (2023), Max Matthews Computer Music Award (2023), Millican Endowed Scholarship (2023), and Earle Brown Composition Award (2022).

He has had the privilege of attending masterclasses with esteemed composers such as Anthony Cheung, Chaya Czernowin, Du Yun, Evan Johnson, Julia Wolfe, and Eric Wubbels. His compositions have been performed and recorded by distinguished ensembles including International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Linea, SPLICE Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, and loadbang. In recent years, he has participated in Impulse New Music Festival, Sō Percussion Summer Institute, Zodiac Music Festival, highSCORE Festival, and Longy’s Divergent Studio.

Alexander frequently performs improvised music with homemade electronics in DIY venues, museum spaces, and concert halls. He is also a pianist of two decades, proficient in both classical and jazz idioms. As a programmer, he is well-versed in general-purpose languages such as C, C#, Python, Swift, and JavaScript, as well as languages designed for music and multimedia, including Max/MSP/Jitter/Gen, SuperCollider, and TouchDesigner. Recently, he has built a custom live coding environment within Microsoft Excel as part of his ongoing series Planning Obsolescence, which reappropriates productivity tools for musical instruments. Other notable programming projects include Microtonal Lab, a website offering microtonal ear training and composition tools; and VariTuner, a microtonal tuner and tone generator app for iOS devices, featuring a built-in library of over 5000 microtonal scales.

Alexander served as President of Peabody Improvisers Collective, a student organization dedicated to free improvisation and alternative ways of music-making outside the conservatory curriculum, and as President of Society of Composers at Berklee, where he produced six concerts and conducted interviews with renowned composers.

Alexander was born in 2000 and grew up in Lishui, China.