Paul Alexander is a composer and music educator living in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the University of British Columbia he studied cello with Parry Karp and Eric Wilson and composition with David Liang and Elliot Weisgarber. He also studied African music with West African Master Drummers Modesto Amagago and Fana Soro, African Zimbabwean Marimba music with Farai Gezi, Paul Mataruse, and Farai Chakabuda, and Brazilian music with Celso Machado.

Paul Alexander was one of the original founders of the Vancouver Pro Musica Society, developing the society’s structure and legal framework in 1984-5. With the Pro Musica he also held the positions of president and artistic director, leading the organization with a mandate to address the growing crisis in classical music and meet an emerging need for a new repertoire for performing classical musicians.

Paul Alexander’s orchestral, string, and percussion compositions have been played in Canada, Cuba, and Zimbabwe. He is a composer of commissioned works in the dance field, particularly in partnership with Bharata Natyam dancer Sudnya Naik. He has also worked as an orchestrator in the field of film music with credits for Canadian films such as the Gemini and Peabody award wining Human Cargo, Murder Unveiled, and The French Guy. Recently Paul Alexander has co-developed with physicist Dr Ed Levinson a hybrid Western/African pitched percussion ensemble called the Canadian Marimba Orchestra and written a repertoire and music curriculum for these instruments.