Alexandra Harwood

Alexandra Harwood is a composer for film, television and concert music. Her music has been described as ‘elegant, dramatic and sensitive’ with a ‘distinctive and original style’. She has written extensively for film and television, including scores for: Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece drama-comedy series All Creatures Great and Small, starring Samuel West, Dame Diana Rigg, Patricia Hodge, Rachel Shenton and Nicholas Ralph, Mike Newell’s feature The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, starring Lily James and Tom Courtenay, The Escape for Shoebox films, directed by Dominic Savage and starring Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper, and Disney’s feature documentary Growing Up Wild. Other works include the BBC documentary series Thatcher; A Very British Revolution and its sequel series, New Labor for BBC Two, and a new score for the early silent feature A Chapter in Her Life (Universal Studios).

Alexandra is a classically trained composer. After graduating from the Royal College of Music (Dip Mus) and The Juilliard School (Mmus), she was Composer in Residence for the Juilliard Drama Division, during which time she wrote music for theatre productions in the US and UK and worked with actors including Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Laura Linney, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tim Nelson and Audra McDonald.

Alexandra has been commissioned to write numerous concert and theatre works including upcoming Alice In Wonderland for Tulsa Ballet, Carmen and Geisha, choreographed and directed by Kenneth Tindall, four pieces for iMusicanti’s St John’s Smith Square 2018 concert series, Automatic Flesh, choreographed by Miguel Altunaga, for Ballet Rambert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Happy Prince (with libretto by Sir Ronald Harwood based on Oscar Wilde’s tale. Cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra), St John’s Smith Square, London; I Hear a Drum (voice and percussion) for Audra McDonald, Avery Fisher Hall, NY; Sonatina, The National Flute Convention chosen repertoire, 2009 and 2018, USA; Theme and Variations written for Sir Ronald Harwood’s 70th Birthday, performed in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales.

Success in theatre and concert work led Alexandra to take an MA in film composition at the National Film and Television School, which was the start of her career as a film composer. Her music for film has won awards and nominations with BAFTA LA (nomination 2020), British Animation Awards- Best Sound and Music (Winner 2018) , BAFTA Cymru (Winner 2015), BIFA (2013), Anima Mundi, Edinburgh Film Festival, IDFA and Locarno.

Other Film and television work includes scores for BBC animations for director Anna Humphries, A Celebration of Harry Potter for MinaLima and Warner Bros., Neck and Neck animation for MewLab Winner British Animation Awards Best Sound/Music 2018, Dancing in Circles, which was awarded the BAFTA Cymru Best Short Award 2015;  Z1 directed by Gabriel Gauchet – winner of the Best Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2014 and received a Locarno Award nomination in 2013; BBC documentary Girlfriend in a Coma, directed by Annalisa Piras; BBC Ideas animations, Channel 5 series The Secret Life of Puppies and Kittens; Channel 4/Animal Planet US feature documentary Yeti or Not?; BBC4 documentary series What a Performance – Pioneers of Popular Entertainment; No Man’s Land, which won Best International Documentary at the Tehran International Short Film Festival, and received an IDFA nomination and broadcast DN2 Denmark; Kids Say, an animation TV series broadcast in Hong Kong in 2014; short The Substitute which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2015; and NightDare which was nominated for several Royal Television Society Awards, including Best Sound and Music in 2015.