About Alex

Hi! I'm a writer, educator, and trombonist working at the confluences of music, spirituality, and social transformation.

I spent most of my 20s and early 30s writing about jazz, first for the Newark Star-Ledger and NPR Music, then as a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA, where my research focused on jazz clubs and the communities that sustain them in Los Angeles, California; Santiago, Chile; and Novosibirsk, Siberia. My writing has been published in the academic journals Jazz Perspectives and Jazz and Culture. Keeping up as a trombonist has always been an important part of this work, which has also brought wonderful opportunities t0 perform and teach throughout the Americas since my first gigs with Los Andes Big Band in 2005.

More recently, I've also trained in Deep Listening through the Center for Deep Listening and in consent-based governance through Sociocracy for All, where I serve in the Cooperatives Circle. Over the past five years, my work has focused on building purpose-driven organizations in the solidarity economy and engaged Buddhist movements, including ten (The Emergence Network), Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Catalyst Cooperative Healing, and Mirlo. This year, I'm returning to academia as a Visiting Lecturer in Music at Wellesley College and working on my debut album, Somewhere Else!!!!

To learn more about my work, please visit the Music, Teaching, Writing, and Projects pages on this website, or download my CV.