Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
Biography Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
is an award-winning film composer and classical electronic artist represented by Manners McDade. Having written music for theatre, circus, dance, opera and film, she is well versed in telling stories through music and visual collaborations.
Alexandra’s film scores have been screened at BAFTA and Oscar-qualifying film festivals and she has recently completed her debut feature score. She has worked with BAFTA and BIFA-nominated director Douglas King on Do No Harm (Creative Scotland) starring Sharon Rooney and Claudia Blakley, nominated for ‘Best UK Short’ at Raindance Film Festival. Known mainly for scoring drama and art films, she also worked on environmentalist documentary By the Water with LA director Kaelyn Maehara. In 2019 Alexandra scored a commission for the Barbican Centre, Divided We Scroll with director Klaas Diersmann and choreographer Pepe Ubera for which her score won an award for ‘Best Sound & Music’. She recently scored Charlotte Mungomery’s emotional film Until We Touch featuring violin by Anna Phoebe (AVAWAVES, One Little Independent) described by the Brisbane Times as “touching”. In 2020 she was also commissioned by the German Embassy and Goethe Institut to score a multi-cultural project for The German Choir of London. Alexandra was selected to be on the 19/20 BAFTA Crew x BFI Network and is an active member of the Alliance of Women Film Composers. She was also on the judging panel for the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards 2020 for ‘Best Original Film Score’.
As a solo artist and multi-instrumentalist, Alexandra plays instruments, live electronics and everyday sounds in her shows. Alexandra’s passions lie in the duality between the classical and electronica worlds, moving picture and her love for the piano. Her music has been described by The White Room Magazine as “majestic, at times monumental…the force and vastness of nature”. She has performed all over UK alongside artists such as Talvin Singh, Melissa Parmenter, Gabríel Ólafs, Mara Simpson, Throwing Snow and TSHA at venues and festivals such as Union Chapel, Butley Priory, Cheltenham International Music Festival, Brudenell Social Club and Bristol Old Vic. Alexandra performed tibetan bowl in Towards Silence for the John Tavener Memorial Concert. She was commissioned to write a dance track Prana for Fiya House at Sadlers Wells Breakin’ Convention 19, released featuring composer and vocalist Suvi-Eeva (HANNA series, Amazon Prime).
Her debut EP 19-88 released in 2019 and Where 2 featured on Nils Frahm’s 2020 Pianoday playlist. She released a rework album RE:19-88 that featured on BBC Radio 3 Unclassified and Soho Radio. As a keen collaborator Alexandra has released with several artists, collaborations including Fuchsklang Musik’s Phaebel, Mara Simpson, Frances Shelley, Freddie Prest, Perdurabo and Kezia Tomsett. Her debut album 2 Years Stranger featured on Tom Ravenscroft’s BBC 6 Music Recommends and BBC Radio 3 Unclassified, with lead single Waiting described by Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 6) as “a beautiful haunting track”.
