The music of composer and violinist Alexandra du Bois (Ph.D. Stony Brook University; M.M. The Juilliard School; B.M. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music) has been performed in concert halls throughout five continents—her travels connecting her tangibly to the countries that inform and inspire her work. Described as “an intense, luminous American composer,” (Los Angeles Times) and “a painter who knows exactly where her picture will be hung” (New York Times), du Bois writes multi-discipline works often propelled by issues of indifference and inequality throughout the United States and the world.

Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia and a Northeast coast resident for most of her life, Alexandra du Bois (b. 1981) found her voice through the violin, beginning lessons at the age of two years old. After moving to rural Virginia, she began hearing music in the natural world around her. It was this intimate connection to the natural world and the sea that inspired her to begin writing and underscores her work to this day. Her work has been described as “offering an extraordinary interface between traditional and avant-garde” (New Zealand Herald), “an impressively sustained essay in musical melancholy,” (The Guardian London), and “a stunning piece that explores the landscape of war and conflict” (BBC).

Recent commissions include The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Riot Ensemble London, Institut Curie Paris, and Kronos Quartet—who commissioned her first, third, fifth, and seventh quartets. Alexandra du Bois has previously been composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College, Carnegie Hall with Weill Institute, Harrison House, The Hermitage, Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, and with Southwest Chamber Music throughout Vietnam and Los Angeles. She is a member of BMI and Composition Faculty and Chair of the Composition & Theory Department at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and lives on traditional and unceded home of the Western Abenaki People, Vermont.

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