Alex Paxton

About Alex Paxton

Music that is " highly innovative...of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy, packed with life force unlike anything else.” Ivors Classical Awards.

Alex Paxton is an award-winning composer & jazz-trombonist.

He has been described as “the most joyous sound” (New York Times), “A Magician of Sound” (Financial Times), “Emotionally moving, life fulfilled momentum,” (Die Welt), “Brightly coloured, loopy Joy” (Guardian), “Wild and wacky to a new level...invigorating...delicious dollops” (The Times), “like running through a park at full speed, sunlight exploding across your face, breathless but unstoppable” (Positionen), “Blissful...incessantly joyful album, bold and catchy, exploding in colors and melodies” (Jazz Times), “extremely accessible in its tuneful generosity...astonishing formal rigor, sophistication, and an unerring ear for pop hooks” (Bandcamp) and “a riotous hot pink overabundance of love and rage” (The Wire).

His music has been awarded: an Ivor Novello, the Paul Hindemith Prize ("a Brit who defies every conceivable genre boundary…an extremely modern and future-oriented style”), the Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize (“Unbridled joy…sophisticated, passionate music full of pulsating energy and stylistic diversity”), the Elbphilharmonie’s Claussen Simon Composition Prize, RPS Royal Philharmonic Society Prize, Dankworth Jazz Prize, Leverhume Art Scholarship with London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Award.

Alex has released four critically acclaimed albums: MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE (Birmingham Record Company / NMC label), iLOLLI-POP (non-classical), Happy Music for Orchestra (Delphian), and Delicious (New Amsterdam Records) as well as many smaller releases. Each has been widely reviewed and featured in UK, USA and Europe in broad sheets (NYT, Guardian, Times, Financial Times etc) and Music magazines (The Wire, Quitus, Bandcamp, Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, Crescendo, Positionen, Point of Departure etc.) He is a commissioned contributor to John Zorn’s Arcana X 2021.

His music is frequently performed internationally by many of the worlds leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals: London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), WDR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, London Sinfonietta, AskSchöenberg, Re-Mix Ensemble, Riot Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, Load Bang Ensemble, Sitron Sinfionetta, Ensemble Klang, London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), National Youth Orchestra GB, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, NDR Big Band, WDR Big Band, BBC proms, Bang on a Can Long Play, Paris Festival d'Automne, MearzMusik, Guadeamus, ECLAT, impuls Graz, Now! Essen, Klangspuren Schwaz, Wigmore hall, Klammer Klang, Making Music (UK), Hyper Duo, National Youth Jazz Orchestra (UK) NYJO, Listenpony, Aldeburgh Festival.

“Alex Paxton's fascinating score impressed me from the very first moment...the notes literally jumped out at me from the score; it was clear that this was a unique compositional voice, combining a complex, almost chaotic sensibility with a charming grounding in folk tradition.” (conductor Alan Gilbert).

He has written six operas hosted by English National Opera and Helios Collective, Tête à Tête opera festival, Second Movement Opera.

As a jazz trombone soloist “Paxton is a monster improviser” (Bandcamp), Alex has performed concerto-like pieces of his own with WDR Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Het Musik, Riot Ensemble, Ensemble Klang, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), & Ensemble x.y. “secretly one of the greatest trombone players in the world” (BBC Music Magazine).

He is founder of Dreammusics ensemble and performs regularly with pioneering improvisers (eg: Charlotte Keeffe, Steve Noble). “meticulously scored…seems to change with every bar, enfolding bite-size pieces of classic minimalism, brass brand tradition, electronic noise, & video game plasticity..intensely virtuosic and giddily joyful. electronically slathered trombone…connects his garrulous attack to the most extroverted playing of George Lewis & Roswell Rudd..." (Bandcamp Daily Best Contemporary Classical).

Alex has written extensively for musicians in community settings including, innovative ways of writing for young instrumentalists and singers in a post-Roald Dahl world of new-music. including: NOGGIN and the WHALE (Massed forces including 500 young instrumentalists and singes), Fly Like a Kitchen, Muffin, Pudding Tummy and The smelling test.

He is professorial composition staff at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and has worked as lead-composition tutor (and workshop leader) on the National Youth Orchestra GB, he has taught/ lectured at composition and improvisation at conservatories including, RAM, GSMD, RCM, The Royal Conservatoire (NL) and many other universities.

Alex studied as a scholar at Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music.

Alex is an endorsed solo artist with Michael Rath Trombones
Alex is managed by Ben Rayfield at Rayfield Allied