Alexandra Bryant
Hailed as a “promising composer” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Alexandra T Bryant has been lauded for her “ability to convey myriad moods through clear thematic materials and coloristic contrasts.”  The 2008 world premiere of her piece Apostrophe was presented by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in Severance Hall.  In addition to being commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, she has received commissions from William Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Aeolus Quartet in collaboration with the Friends of Chamber Music of Reading, the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Orchestra Association, the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association, and the Clevel­and Museum of Natural History.  She is the 2007-2008 recipient of Darius Milhaud Award at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Born in Western Washington, Miss Bryant is a 2010 Master’s graduate of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where studied under Dr. Pierre Jalbert and Dr. Arthur Gottschalk.  In May of 2008, Miss Bryant completed her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition under the guidance of Dr. Margaret Brouwer and Dr. Paul Schoenfield from the Cleveland Institute of Music.  This summer, she will be attending the Aspen Music School and Festival as a Fellow where she will be studying under Sydney Hodkinson.  Studies have also included George Tsontakis at Aspen, the Bowdoin International Music Festival with Samuel Adler, Claude Baker, and Simone Fontanelli, Tyler White at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chamber Music Institute, the Czech-American Summer Music Institute in Prague with Ladislav Kubik, and Dr. Robert Hutchinson at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

Beginning her musical studies at the age of six on the violin under the direction of her mother, her major private instructors since have included Janis Upshall, Dr. Maria Sampen at the University of Puget Sound, and David Russell at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  Participating actively in orchestral and chamber music since a very early age, Miss Bryant has acted as Concertmaster of both the Tacoma Youth Symphony and the Peninsula Youth Orchestra, as well as Principle Second of the University of Puget Sound’s Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestras, in addition to numerous leadership positions of other ensembles.  During her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Miss Bryant was also a participant in the orchestra program and in chamber ensembles at the Shepherd School.  Miss Bryant feels very strongly that working with fellow instrumentalists is a valuable asset of one’s compositional process.