About Alex Sramek

"Wait, you were serious?"

Transcribing the sweet hip-hop beats emitted by my dishwasher, I theorize about writing a piece notated by the placement of different objects in this contraption. I idly muse on what it would sound like for Philip Glass to write a children’s song, and determine that it would lead to obsessive-compulsive children. My frustration with the mundanity of mid-concert raffles sparks the idea of making the raffles themselves into a piece of music. I have a sudden mischievous thought that Cage-style found percussion concerts could be narrated like a golf match. I stop hoarding prerecorded junk phone calls because my answering machine fills up.

A common thread among much of my music is the fleeting moment of “wouldn’t it be cool, awesome, horrible, or hilarious if” – moments that might come about when bored, idle, frustrated, or inebriated, and that would give the average musician a quick, short-lived chuckle. The difference with me is that I write them down and act on them (people frequently comment, “wait, you were serious?”). I find that the opposite of a good idea is often an even better idea, and I have a penchant for using the most uninteresting, irritating, even downright inappropriate sources as impetus for music. These are, to me, a vast source of untapped coolness, and have led to such gems as a death metal scam email, a solemn antiphonal chanting of parking receipt legalese, and a disco party in the middle of a clarinet solo.

My pursuit of the unlikely extends beyond musical source material to manner of musical presentation. Lately, I have been exploring possibilities within the music hall with elements like cohesive incidental music, as well as outside the hall setting, with interactive musical games and guerilla urban performances.

If you're looking to assemble a more ordinary, fact-based bio, see some facts below. I've arranged them in list format for easy reading, though you're welcome to arrange them using phrases such as "In his early years" and "His music has also been performed at"

Your Papers, Please
- MFA, Clarinet Performer/Composer, CalArts, May 2011
- BM, Music Composition, CSULB, 2006
- BS, Computer Science, CSULB, 2006

Clarinet Taskmasters
- Bill Powell
- Helen Goode-Castro
- Jeremy Reynolds
- Lea Steffens

Composition Co-Conspirators
- Sara Roberts
- Art Jarvinen
- Vinny Golia
- Justus Matthews
- Carolyn Bremer
- Martin Herman
- Robin Cox

Shenanigans
- Death/Experimental Metal and Noise bass and contrabass clarinet
- The Audio Destructinators
- The Contrabass Clarinet Commissioning Project
- Contrabass Clarinet Microtonal Fingerings (in progress)
- mostlydifferent.com (T-shirts, sheet music, other stuff)
- GRIT (Americana folk punk band)
- Bubbeleh (klezmer)

Former Shenanigans
- Quick 2 Bass (dance party band)
- Los Angeles Clarinet Choir
- Orange County Wind Symphony

Academic Shenanigans
- More Ensembles and recitals than I care to enumerate at this time. Classical, contemporary, experimental, metal, folk, noise, etc.
- About 100 performances during 7 years of undergrad.
- About 100 more during 2 years of grad school.

Distinctions
- "World's Loudest Bass Clarinetist" - The Clarinet

Personal Appearances
- Guest Composer/Conductor, Russian Chamber Orchestra (dir. Sergei Proskourin), May 2007
- SABRe Symposium, Zurich, Feb 2011 (heavily amplified bass clarinet)
- Clarinetfest 2011, Los Angeles, Aug 2011 (unconventional extended techniques)

Previous Life
- Software Engineer, Quicksilver Software Inc, 2001-04, 2006-09. Credits include MOO3, Type to Learn 4, cell phone ports of Burger Time and Mr. Do.
- Contributor to AI Game Programming Wisdom II
- 6th place (team), ACM Programming Contest, So Cal Regional, 2001.
- Head of Software, CSULB MicroMouse Robotics Team.