Alexandra Gardner (born 1967) is an American contemporary composer based in Baltimore, Maryland.Smith, Ken. Review, Alexandra Gardner, Luminoso, Gramophone. May 2007.The New Yorker. "Alexandra Gardner," May 15, 2017, p. 8.NewMusicBox. "Alexandra Gardner," Author. Retrieved July 2, 2021. Her music employs diverse acoustic instrumentation and electronics, drawing on minimalist and modernist influences as well as extra-musical sources and sounds.Smith, Steve. "Alexandra Gardner," Time Out New York, June 14–20, 2007.Manheim, James. Alexandra Gardner, Luminoso, AllMusic. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Beck, Dave. "SSO Composer-in-Residence Alexandra Gardner: My Heart is with Rhythm and Pulse," Classical King FM 98.1, June 7, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Ezer, David. "Three Young Composers, Key of Vassar," Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly, Summer 2000. Retrieved July 1, 2021. Critics note her work for its blend of contemplative and expressive qualities, clear structure and unexpected evolution, and complex rhythms.Ortiz, Edward. "A Diverse Festival of New American Music," San Francisco Classical Voice, November 15, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Hall, Susan. "Cutting Edge Music at Manhattan's Symphony Space," Berkshire Fine Arts, April 18, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2021.Greenberg, Mike. "SOLI delivers beautiful 'Crows,'" San Antonio Express-News, May 12, 1998, p. 8E.Miner, Erica. "Seattle Symphony Celebrates Centenary with Bernstein Extravaganza," Broadway World, June 17, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2021. In a 2007 New Yorker essay, music critic Alex Ross placed Gardner among a "vital group of composers" creating a "new kind of interstitial music" that blurs genre boundaries.Ross, Alex. "Club Acts," The New Yorker. April 16, 2007, p. 166–7.
Gardner's work has been performed in solo, chamber and orchestral contexts and as scoring for dance, theater and visual art performances, at venues including Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Centro de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Strathmore Music Center and Symphony Space, among others.Akeley, Tonya. "Alexandra Gardner," International Trombone, April 2006, p.74–6.Brall, Susan. "Pianist Jenny Lin at The Strathmore Mansion," DC Metro Theater Arts, February 27, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2021. It has been commissioned by ensembles and artists including Seattle Symphony, pianist Jenny Lin, cellist Joshua Roman, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and SOLI Chamber Ensemble.Stiefel, Andrew. "Composer Alexandra Gardner, Igniting Joy Through Music," Beyond the Stage, Seattle Symphony, May 10, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Windeler, Diane. "Commissioned work anchors SOLI recital," San Antonio Express-News, May 3, 1998. Gardner's music is recorded on the Innova, Ars Harmonica, and Naxos labels.Innova Recordings. Alexandra Gardner/Luminoso. Albums. Retrieved July 5, 2021.Ferrer, Carlos Gil. Obres per a Trombó I Electronica, Barcelona: Ars Harmonica, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2021.Elvira, Julian. Obres per a flauta i electronica, Ars Harmonica, 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2021.Soli Chamber Ensemble. Musica, por un tiempo, New York: Albany Music, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
Early life and career Alexandra Gardner was born in 1967 and raised in Washington, DC.Midgette, Anne. "Do we need a whole festival of women’s classical music? The Boulanger Initiative thinks so," The Washington Post, March 1, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2021. She studied percussion (focusing on marimba), composition and electronic music with Charles Barbour, Annea Lockwood and Richard Edward Wilson at Vassar College. After taking a year off to intern at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, she graduated with an A.B. degree in music in 1990 and began creating electronic music in collaborations with modern dance choreographers and groups in the DC area, including Sharon Mansur, Deborah Riley and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.Jackson, George. "Nancy Havlik Dancers," The Washington Post, May 8, 1995, p. D9.Dunning, Jennifer. "Spotlighting Similarities, But Differently," The New York Times, March 28, 2000, p. E6. Retrieved June 30, 2021.FitzGerald, Nora. "Deborah Riley Tells All, in Dance," The Washington Post, April 8, 1997, p. B8.Barbieri, Susan. "News of Our Chapters," American Composers Forum Magazine, 1998, p.4, 8.
In 1993, she enrolled at CalArts, where she studied with Morton Subotnick and explored Afro-Cuban and Ghanaian percussion in performance outside of school. After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, she returned to the east coast, enrolling at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (M.M. Composition, 1997) in Baltimore and studying with Ronald Caltabiano and Jean Eichelberger Ivey.
Since then, in addition to composing, Gardner has taught at the Levine School of Music, worked as an audio engineer for NPR, served as an associate editor for NewMusicBox, and provided coaching for music creators.NPR. "National Portrait Gallery Ready for Its Closeup," June 25, 2006. Retrieved July 2, 2021.Still, Christopher. "Alexandra Gardner: Composer, Coach, Superhero," Honesty Pill podcast, December 21, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
Composing Gardner's compositions often combine acoustic instrumentation and electronic music created from organic sound sources and field recordings; reviews frequently note a seamless blending of these elements in her work, described by The New Yorker as an "alchemy of craft, whimsy and sensual appeal." Her influences include minimalist and contemporary classical figures, such as Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich and George Crumb, her training as a percussionist, and extra-musical sources including the natural sciences (particularly geology), literature and mythology.Young, Logan K. "Logan K. Young reviews UMBC's Livewire fest," The Baltimore Sun, October 31, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2021.Alexandra Gardner, Alexandra. "Notation Creation," NewMusicBox, March 22, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2021. Gardner employs an intuitive process, experimenting with a wide range of unfolding ideas and textures that are ultimately organized through disciplined formal constructions. Writers characterize her music as featuring thoughtful, compositional frameworks, accessible and lyrical melodies, a balance of subtle textures and dramatic gestures, and a lively sense of rhythm.Rutherford-Johnson, Tim. "Recent Releases Reviewed," The Rambler, August 22, 2006. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Ginsberg, Daniel. "Contemporary Music Forum," The Washington Post, November 14, 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
Electronic compositions and music for dance In her early career, Gardner composed electronic music for modern dance group performances that was often described as "haunting" and "sensitive."FitzGerald, Nora. "Quiescence: Anything But," The Washington Post, April 29, 1997. Retrieved July 1, 2021. Many of these works are compiled on her CD, Marblehead: Electronic Music 1990-2000.Gardner, Alexandra. Marblehead: Electronic Music 1990-2000, US: Alexandra Gardner, 2000. Retrieved June 10, 2021. The composition "Marblehead" (1992)—commissioned for a dance whose props included a chair and a large bowl of marbles—was created entirely from sampled sounds of marbles clicking and rolling; in a review of the work's later performance, Cleveland's The Plain Dealer described it as "amusing taped study in rhythm and percussive sonorities."Salisbury, Wilma. "Artfully illuminating contemporary music," "The Plain Dealer", October 13, 2001. Gardner composed three other works on the CD, among others, for choreographer Sharon Mansur: "Waterborne," "Shifting Sands" and "Framework".Traiger, Lisa. "Fancy Feat: The Metro D.C. Awards," The Washington Post, September 11, 2002. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
She wrote "Light Chimney" (1995, for flute, trumpet, horn and percussion) for a Smithsonian Institution-commissioned dance performance in the National Building Museum, creating a hushed response to the site's cavernous size, structure and textures. In 1999, as composer-in-residence at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, she composed "In Praise of Young People and What They Have To Say" for the group's millennium multimedia project, a collaboration with underserved youth. In 2001, Gardner composed the electroacoustic work "Oasis" for a Deborah Riley Dance Projects performance commissioned by Kennedy Center.Traiger, Lisa. "The Serene Touch of Deborah Riley," The Washington Post, May 17, 2002. Retrieved June 30, 2021.The Washington Times. "Home of 'guardian angel' of local dance," May 25, 2002. Retrieved July 2, 2021. Her later work, "Bloom" (2009, cello and electronics), was used as a score by Ballet San Antonio in 2015.Wellinghoff, Jasmina. "Ballet San Antonio up to the challenge," San Antonio Express-News, March 28, 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
Solo and duo works In the 2000s, Gardner often focused on solo and duo compositions, some written for visiting soloists while she was composer-in-residence at the Institut Universitari de l’audiovisual/Phonos Foundation in Barcelona from 2002 to 2004. Combining acoustic instruments, electronic sound synthesis and sampled ambient sound, several of these works are contained on Gardner's CD, Luminoso (2006).Keresman, Mark. Review, Alexandra Gardner, Luminoso, Primetime A and E, 2006. Reviews describe its music as exhibiting clear compositional structures and accessible rhythms, expressivity in both solo lines and electroacoustic textures, and a fluid dynamic between those two modes, ranging from often indistinguishable samplings, expansions and variations on the soloist sounds to open, confrontational dialogues. Time Out'''s Steve Smith wrote "the electronic elements seem to move with the same volition and flexibility as her human collaborators"; Tim Rutherford-Johnson noted those elements for their tactility and "hands-on-the-controls live performance feel."
Among the CD's compositions, "Ayehli" and "Snapdragon" (2002) both interweave field recordings; "Snapdragon" blends trombone soloing and samples with sounds from Barcelona, while "Ayehli" interlaces repeated marimba figures with street sounds recorded in December 2001 at the 9/11 site. Smith wrote that the piece's marimba rises above the "steely ambience" of Ground Zero "like a hardy stem pushing through a crack in the sidewalk." Other compositions include "Luminoso" (2003), whose flamenco strumming and processed sounds critic Alex Ross described as evoking "a lone guitarist wandering around a sun-baked ruin"; "Tourmaline" (2004), described in performance reviews as a taut, engaging mix of soprano saxophone, bustling counterpoints and ghostly echoes;Smith, Steve. "The Mandate Is Maintained. Just the Details Are Different," The New York Times, March 22, 2007. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Smith, Tim. "Mobtown's saxy, froggy, birdy night," The Baltimore Sun, October 2, 2008. Retrieved July 1, 2021. "New Skin" (2004), a meditative, slightly improvisatory work contrasting alto flute and processed percussion sounds; and "Ónice" (2003), written for bass clarinetist Harry Sparnaay.
Some of Gardner's later solo/duo compositions include: "electric blue pantsuit" (2007, amplified violin and computer sounds); "Bloom" (2009), commissioned by cellist Joshua Roman; the sonata variation "Chalcedony Sonata", written for pianist Jenny Lin; and the flute and soundtrack piece, "Fade" (2019), commissioned by the National Flute Association.Kozinn, Allan. "And Now They Sing the Fiddle Electric," The New York Times, November 30, 2009, p. C3. Retrieved June 30, 2021.Alexandra Gardner website. Music. Retrieved July 5, 2021.Gardner, Alexandra. Alexandra Gardner, Soundcloud. Retrieved July 5, 2021.National Flute Association. Commissions. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
Chamber music