Alexander Schubert was born in 1979 in Bremen and studied bioinformatics in Leipzig and Multimedia Composition with Georg Hajdu and Manfred Stahnke in Hamburg. During his studies he has worked as a musician and composer in a variety of different environments. In addition to this, Schubert worked for one year at the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media) in Karlsruhe at the Institutefor Music and Acoustics. Since 2011 he’s a PhD student in Hamburg and teaches live-electronics at the conservatory in Lübeck.
Schubert’s research interest explores cross-genre interfaces between acoustic and electronic music. Musical pieces for audio tapes and the formal notation of compositions for live electronics belong just as much to his work as the design of software-setups and manipulation / design of instruments for an intuitive handling in an improvised context (see “Weapon of Choice”). A permanent focus of his work is the combination of notated and improvised music – both in aesthetics and structure. His technical training is the basis of a differentiated utilization and individual design of sound synthesis and controllers (e.g. in the installation „A Set of Dots“). The most characteristic feature of his work may be the combination of different musical genres (like hardcore, free jazz, popular electronica) with contemporary classical concepts.
Since 2009 he focuses on sensor-based gestural composition in both his writing and research activities (as a PhD student). In this work field he is contributing to international conferences and researches with various institutes worldwide. The combination of aesthetic, technical and scientific aspects of this interdisciplinary approach have encountered a very positive reception.
Apart from working as a composer and solo musician Schubert is also playing in the ensembles like „Schubert-Kettlitz-Schwerdt“, „Trnn“ and „Ember“. Schubert has contributed to a variety of different projects as a musician, composer and programmer (e.g. for the Wiener Festwochen and Staatsoper Berlin). Alexander Schubert curates the music festival contemporary electronic music in Leipzig and runs the contemporary music label Ahornfelder. He’s an organizing member of the VAMH - a collective maintaining a broad network for contemporary music and organizing an annual two-week long festival. He’s been a jury member for conferences and competitions (e.g. SSSP Conference, JTTP competition) and held composition workshops (e.g. conservatory Mexico City).
In 2009 he was awarded with a Bourges residency prize and was a prizewinner in the international competition JTTP and received scholarships in Montreal from the ICMC and from NIME in Sydney. In 2010 he was a residency guest at the University of Birmingham and stipendiary at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. In 2008 and 2010 he was a guest artist at the ZKM in Karlsruhe.
His works have been played at: IRCAM Paris, NIME Sydney, Akousma Montreal, ICMC, ZKM Karlsruhe, SMC Porto, SSSP Leicester, Klangwertage Hamburg, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Komponistenforum Mittersill, Maribor Slovenia, Hilltown Festival Ireland, New York, Boston, Ahornfelder Leipzig, Bipolar Festival Karlsuhe / München / Budapest, Blurred Edges Hamburg, Disparate Bodies Belfast, Katarakt Hamburg, Noisefloor England, Making New Waves Budapest, TU Berlin, Soundcrawl Nashville, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Gijón (Laboral) Spain, EMM Kansas, ARD Hörspieltage, Steinhardt School New York, Essl Museum Wien, Deutschlandfunk Köln, Staatsoper Berlin, MDR, Wiener Festwochen.
