Alexander Lawther Taylor (born 1988) is a New Zealand composer, poet, and writer.
Early life and education
Taylor was born in 1988 and attended Westlake Boys High School. He studied music and English at the University of Auckland, receiving an MMus (Composition) in 2011 with a folio of compositions for viola and orchestra, piano, clarinet, and ensembles. He was supervised by Eve de Castro-Robinson and John Elmsly. He later completed a PhD at the University of California San Diego under Lei Liang.
Career
Taylor sings and plays several instruments, including piano, violin, and saxophone. He has cited as influences Anton Webern, György Ligeti, Gérard Grisey, Charles Ives, Morton Feldman, Annea Lockwood, Conlon Nancarrow, and New Zealanders Anthony Watson, Samuel Holloway, and Eve de Castro-Robinson.
His compositional work often explores interactions between seemingly disparate materials, especially between old and new musics. His output includes works for orchestra, chamber music, music for theatre, and concertos for flute and bassoon. In New Zealand, the NZSO and ensemble 175 East have performed his music.
In 2012, the National Youth Orchestra premiered his work feel, commissioned when he was the orchestra's Composer-in-Residence. The third movement of that work, [inner], was his winning entry in the NZSO Todd Corporation Young Composers Award in 2011.
In 2016, he attended the Darmstadt new-music/avant-garde festival, where he presented The Unauthorised History of New Zealand Music with New Zealand composer Celeste Oram.
As of 2026, he is teaching Theory and Composition at the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University.
Awards and honours
- 2011: Winner of the NZSO Todd Corporation Young Composers Award for [inner]
- 2012: Winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award at the APRA New Zealand awards for [inner] — the youngest person to receive the award
- 2013: Winner of the Composers Association of New Zealand Trust Fund Award
- 2016: Recipient of an Arts Foundation New Generation Award
Selected works
Music: Four landscapes (2008) for string quartet; [inner] (2011) for viola and orchestra; Study of two pears (2011) song cycle; Burlesques mecaniques (2012) for piano trio; feel (2012) for full orchestra; two years later (2013) for male voice choir; Horn concerto: hydraulic fracture (2015); a summoning (2016) for concert band; Assemblage (2019) for orchestra with painting machine; On what grounds (2021) for violin, cello, and theorbo; Asymptote (2021) for piano trio; Obtuse strategies (2023) for piano.
Poetry: Seven prose poems; For John Cage; Sym phony; Industrial popping sounds; How to listen to a piece of music; Close [t/d]; Park bench; Outside, a cold day.
