ABOUT
ALEJANDRO ESCUDER
ARTIST / EDUCATOR
About me
Born in Castellón de la Plana (Spain). Graduated in Piano and Music Composition by the Higher Conservatory of Music “Salvador Segui” of Castellon (Spain), Master in Media Composition and Applied Music, and Electroacoustic Composition by the University of Music and Performing Arts of Vienna and Sociologist by the University of Vienna.
Alejandro is a Composer, Pianist and Music Educator formed in Spain and Austria as a classical and contemporary music pianist and composer as well as in jazz, modern music and improvisation.
His catalog of works is very varied, demonstrating capacity to compose in a very wide variety of musical fields. Within them we can highlight his works for chamber music, electroacoustic, film music and video game music and sound design.
He has also conducted his own pieces, written and produced commercial music and Sound Design for Videogames.
His other two greatest interest are Sociology and Education, beside research in both fields related to music.
Biography
Composition
As a composer, Alejandro has been student of Ferrer Ferran, Claudia Montero, Voro García, Reinhard Karger, Karlheinz Essl, Christian Mühlbacher, Johannes Kretz, Paul Urbanek; and he has also participated in courses and seminars given by important composers and personalities such as Anton Garcia Abril, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, David Newman, Héctor Parra, Toshio Hosokawa, Cristóbal Halffter, Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Beat Furrer and Georg Friedrich Haas among others.
His composition style embraces a large variety of music styles and aesthetics. He can be defined as a very eclectic composer, demonstrating proficiency in a very wide variety of musical fields:
- Concert and contemporary music: Trance (Sextet); Paradigmen (String Quartet); Superb (Orchestra), Self-Destruction (Wind Orchestra); Arc sur Canvas (Cello+Electronics) Electro-Thunder Harp (Harp+Sampler), Continuum (Trombone+Organ); Pas de Deux (Pno+Cl+Vc)…
- Jazz: Tekamolo (Big Band, 2013); Spanish Ballade (Big Band, 2016)…
- Theater, Music Theater, Performances: Bahnhof des Lebens (2014); #NoWayBack (2017)…
- Music for Film, Docs and Spots: Tagomago (2013); Running is our life (2013); Hide and Seek…
- Music and Sound Design for Videogames: Adaline (iOS), Schools of Magic (iOS)…
- Songwriting and music production: Game of Life (2016); I’m a Minister (2018)…
Piano
As a pianist, his former mentors were Agustín Martínez and Juan Carlos Cornelles. He has also received lessons from Brenno Ambrosini, Carles Marín, Carlos Apellániz, Basilio Fernández, Bogdan Kulakowski… Later in Vienna he expanded his piano skills, learning contemporary music and free improvisation with Manon Liu Winter, and jazz with Paul Urbanek.
As with composition, his experience as a pianist is very wide:
- Soloist concerts in Spain and Austria
- Accompanist of Esther Abrami, Violin; Lucy Zhao, Pipa; and many more…
- Orchestra: Orchestra Klangvereinigung (Vienna); Orchestra of the Higher Conservatory of Music of Castellón (Spain)
- Wind Orchestra of the Music University of Vienna.
- Big Band: Nouvelle Cuisine (Vienna, 2016); Big Band or the Higher Conservatory of Music of Castellón (Spain, 2009-2012)
- Jazz Pianist: Café Central (Vienna), Cafe Ferrari, Café Diglas…
He can be defined as an all-road pianist, who can play any kind of classical music, jazz, pop arrangements, and improvisation.
Orchestration, Arranger & Music Preparation
Since 2013 Alejandro has worked actively in projects related with Orchestration (especially of Film Music), Arranging and Music Preparation for concerts and recording sessions.
Some of the highlights are:
- The World of Hans Zimmer (Orchestration & Music Preparation)
- Hollywood in Vienna 2016, 2018 & 2019 (Arranging, Transcription, Proofreading & Music Preparation)
- Life Ball Vienna 2017 (Transcribing & Arranging)
- Blue Planet 2 –Recording Session at Synchron Stage Vienna- (Music Supervisor)
- Janoska Symphony (Arranging & Music Preparation)
Music Education
He combines his career as a composer and pianist with his passion for pedagogy. He has been dedicated to music education for over 10 years, including conservatories, online education, different music schools, Volkshochschule, as well as with over 100 private students.
He works as Music Theory, Harmony, Piano and Chamber Music professor in different Music Conservatories around Castellón and Valencia (Higher Conservatory of Music of Valencia, Higher Conservatory of Music of Castellón, etc.).
Also he teaches Orchestration, Orchestral Mockup Production and Composition for Film for Cinematic Composing , where he also takes the role of Music Technology Coach.
He constantly tries to improve the quality of the music lessons and the way in which children and adults learn music through modern methods such as music integration, psychopedagogy, the use of Apps, E-Learning and new technologies, and other concepts such as the flipped classroom for theoretical subjects.
Sociology
He is a Sociologist by the University of Vienna, which concluded with the highest grade on his Thesis “What is Art?”. Although he does not work as a Sociologist, he keeps a great interest in the matter. Some of his papers can be read at: https://mdw.academia.edu/aescuder , including his thesis.