Alexandra Pierce


Alexandra Pierce is an American composer, pianist, music theorist, movement educator, author, and Emerita Research Professor of Music and Movement at the University of Redlands.

Biography

Born and raised in Philadelphia, her family later moved to Washington, D.C., where she studied piano with contemporary music specialist, Margaret Tolson. She received a Bachelor of Music, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Michigan, where she majored in piano performance and medieval history; a Master of Music in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music ; a Master of Arts in music history from Harvard University ; and a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Brandeis University, where her teachers included composers Irving Fine and Harold Shapero. Her dissertation, written at Brandeis, is entitled The Analysis of Rhythm in Tonal Music.
Pierce taught from 1968–2001 at the University of Redlands, where she was Professor of Music and Movement, and where she integrated movement research with the teaching of music theory, piano, and with her own composing. Prior to her arrival in Redlands, she taught at MIT and Antioch College.
Her book, Deepening Musical Performance through Movement: The Theory and Practice of Embodied Interpretation, was published in 2007. She and Roger Pierce have co-authored two books on enhancing human movement: Expressive Movement: Posture and Action in Daily Life, Sports, and the Performing Arts and Generous Movement.
Her music is published by Subito Music, as well as by Sisra Publications, Media Press, and Hildegard Music.

Selected works

Symphonies

Flute

Guitar

Books by Alexandra Pierce