Alex Mincek - Artistic Director/Saxophones/Bass Clarinet
Alex Mincek is a New York-based composer and performer. His music, typically
characterized by elements of noise, repetition and dynamic thresholds, has
been influenced by a broad range of styles and techniques stemming from his
involvement with numerous musical traditions. In addition to composing with
various notational practices, he is deeply committed to the art of improvisation
and has been influenced greatly by his participation in various forms of jazz,
punk rock and electronic music. He studied saxophone, clarinet, and flute
with Richard Oatts and composition with Nils Vigeland at the Manhattan School
of Music (BM, MM). He’s currently a doctoral candidate at Columbia University
where he studies composition with Tristan Murail.
Mincek’s music has been performed in the U.S. and in Europe by ensembles including the New Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig (members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra), the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, the Janecek Philharmonic, Tactus, the Second Instrumental Unit, the MATA Micro-Orchestra and the Vega String Quartet. Mincek’s music has been recorded on the Trouble Man Unlimited and Planeria labels.
From 2001-2005 Mincek was a member of the experimental ensemble Zs, with whom he performed his own music, the music of others and improvisations. Mincek currently serves as the saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and music director of Wet Ink Music, a group dedicated to contemporary music, which he founded in 1998.
Mincek has received grants, fellowships, commissions and other awards from organizations such as the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Meet The Composer, the Ostrava New Music Center, International Music Institute Darmstadt, Music At The Anthology, Magdeburg Music Festival, University of North Florida, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University.
“My most recent compositions are the result of my interest in what might be thought of as the space in which pure difference mingles with sameness; where bare repetition meets with complex distribution and where timbre, texture and harmony are treated as equals.”(AM)
