Biography

Alexis Alrich’s music is in the classical tradition, influenced by minimalism, Asian music (including Chinese, Cambodian, and Indonesian Gamelan), Latin music and American roots music. Her style is tonal and melodic, creating a musical narrative with percussive, dance-like rhythms and colorful use of instruments.

She was recently named the Composer in Residence for the San Francisco Choral Artists for the 2019-2020 season and had two pieces premiered by that ensemble, with one other delayed by the pandemic.

The Bachtrack classical music website reviewed a performance by Dame Evelyn Glennie of her Marimba Concerto as: “…an electric performance of composer Alexis Alrich’s Marimba Concerto...this action-packed piece injected fresh energy into the whole room…it stole the show.” A member of the audience commented, “It was like a novel that I never wanted to end.”

Ms. Alrich studied composition at the New England Conservatory of Music, California Institute of the Arts, and got her master’s degree in composition with Lou Harrison at Mills College. Although trained in an abstract, modernist style at NEC, she soon realized that her natural voice was traditionally rooted — tonal, melodic and expressive. Harrison introduced her to Asian music through Javanese gamelan which became a significant influence.

After graduate school she stayed in the San Francisco Bay Area and was active in the music scene. The Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic premiered her piece Avenues in 1991, which has been since performed numerous times. She also taught music composition in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 18 years. She was a founding member and pianist for the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra. The SFCCO premiered a number of Alrich’s pieces including her Marimba Concerto.

Music for the wider community is especially fulfilling to her. Ms. Alrich received a ‘Continental Harmony’ grant from the American Composers Forum in 2000 to write a piece for the state of Maine. This was an evening-length work for full orchestra, large chorus and folk instruments including fiddlers and singers. Called Maine Suite, it incorporated words and stories of local poets and brought together two disparate communities, Yankees and Franco-Americans.

Nature is a source of her inspiration, from trees, to birds, to landscapes. She was selected twice to be a resident at the artists’ retreat I-Park in Connecticut, where she composed the works Fragile Forests I: California Oaks and Fragile Forests II: Cambodia. Conversely she is also inspired by roads and cityscapes in pieces such as Avenues, Palm Boulevard, Driving to Salt Lake and Route 101.

Ms. Alrich moved to Hong Kong in 2007 and commuted between Hong Kong and Berkeley, CA, from 2007-2011 as the first director of the John Adams Young Composers Program. She studied the erhu (Chinese violin) in Hong Kong with Xu Hui, a member of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, who introduced her to traditional Chinese music.

While living in Hong Kong she received major commissions from Premiere Performances of Hong Kong: Shadow in the Moon and Beat of the Dragon Boat (Chinese and Western instruments), and the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra: an erhu concerto, Song of Eternal Regret (Chinese traditional instruments). Her Marimba Concerto was performed and recorded by Dame Evelyn Glennie and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. The Mill Valley Philharmonic commissioned a piece inspired by Beijing, Bell and Drum Tower, which was performed again in 2018 by the Oakland Civic Orchestra.

Most recently, she was commissioned by Kyle Bossert, percussionist, to write a marimba solo, Onward. Lynn Schugren, pianist, commissioned her to compose a piano solo entitled Voice of the Forest. Another recent piece is Water Colors for oboe, violin, viola and cello, commissioned by the Strobe Quartet in San Francisco. String Quartet No. 3 was premiered by the Left Coast Ensemble in Grass Valley, California, in January 2018. Besides solos, duets, trios, string quartets, woodwind quintet, percussion and brass ensembles, she has written for unusual combinations such as harpsichord/guitar and mandolin/marimba. Other chamber works include Ballet for vibraphone, drum set and electric guitar, commissioned by the Living Earth Ensemble, and Muse of Fire for percussion quartet, commissioned by the Orphic Percussion Ensemble.

Ms. Alrich collaborates frequently with Cambodian choreographer and dancer Charya Burt, writing original dance scores and transcriptions of traditional Cambodian music. They received a grant from the Creative Work Fund for Charya’s piece Blossoming Antiquities, performed at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, and also received a ‘Center for Cultural Innovation – Investing in Artists’ grant for the piece Silenced. They performed together in August 2017 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Since moving back to Grass Valley, California in 2017, she has joined the board of directors of the Nevada County Composers Cooperative and has been featured on their Meet the Composer series and Wet Ink performances.  She also plays Brazilian, Italian and original music as the Duo Lynx with Billy Packard on mandolin.

Her music is published by Alto Publications in Bristol, England. She is also one of the hosts of the radio show “Classics Declassified” on KVMR Nevada City, California.