ALEX BURTZOS
Alex Burtzos is an American composer, conductor, and educator based in New York City and Orlando, FL. His music has been performed across four continents by some of the world's foremost contemporary musicians and ensembles, including JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, loadbang, Contemporaneous, ETHEL, Jenny Lin, RighteousGIRLS, Decoda, and many others. Alex is the founder and artistic director of ICEBERG New Music, a New York-based composer collective.
As a composer, Alex is committed to pursuing artistic expression unconstrained by boundaries of school or style. His work often incorporates elements of the 20th Century avant-garde, jazz, rock, metal, and hip-hop alongside or against classical/preclassical structures and sounds, justifying these juxtapositions with a great depth of musical ideas and extra-musical knowledge. Alex’s music takes as its basis and provides commentary on a diverse array of subject matter, from early colonial history to recent events, from Shakespeare’s tragedies to naughty text messages. His unique approach has earned him accolades and awards from organizations around the world.
Alex is currently an associate professor and the endowed chair of composition studies at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches composition, orchestration, film scoring, video game scoring, and music technology. In addition to his work in academia, he serves as a judge and administrator for the National Young Composers Challenge, a nationwide competition for composers ages 13-18.
Alex holds a DMA from Manhattan School of Music. His music is published by Just a Theory Press, NewMusicShelf, and others, and can be heard on the Sono Luminous and Ravello Records labels.