Doctorate in cello performance cognate in orchestral conducting Played in bands led by David Sanford and Elliott Sharp

Cellist James Alexander is a performer, composer, improviser, and ethnosonicologist. Winner of the Eight-Minute competition at the inaugural Asian Classical Music Initiative International Conference, ... he takes an active role in connecting the fields of musicology and ethnomusicology. He commissions/premieres cello works and curates musiartistical events–mostly recently with artists from Lawrence, KS and the Spencer Museum of Art on Murmurations, a public programming series focused on developing the individual and collective sense of improvisation between museum and community. He has presented his doctoral research, The Influence of Vietnamese Traditional Music on the Cello Works of P. Q. Phan, Vân-Ánh Võ, and Nhật Minh Nguyễn at colleges and conferences around the United States. He has premiered cello works by Tyson Davis, Julio Elvin Quiñones, and Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova); he has collaborated to produce music with Woulg, Jack Herscowitz, and Chase Chandler; and he has written music for Kip Haaheim, Alize Francheska Roznyai, and members of International Contemporary Ensemble. He has also played percussion and electric guitar in bands led by Susie Ibarra, Elliott Sharp, and David Sanford. James is leading the Link up program and working with the West Michigan Symphony board to start a string instrument program at Dr. Martin Luther King Academy in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. James earned a D.M.A in cello performance with a cognate in orchestral conducting summa cum laude from the University of Kansas and has a graduate degree in cello performance from Western Michigan University. His principal mentors have included Sara Cumming, James Fiste, Bruce Uchimura, Carolyn Watson, Kip Haaheim, and Hannah Collins.read more