Debra Alexander
Alison Stuart is the nom de plume (using their middle names) for the composing team of Debra Alexander and James Grant, both award-winning artists and dedicated teachers who have joined forces to compose melodically lyrical and harmonically rich new music specifically geared to middle- and high-school bands, string orchestras and recitalists. Their music is available exclusively through Potenza Music Publishers.
Debra Alexander received a B.A. in Music from Wittenberg University, and completed additional studies in Songwriting, Style Writing, and Recording and Producing at Berklee College of Music. A music industry pro teacher and veteran songwriter of the Nashville, New York, Austin, Boston, and Toronto music scenes, she is the creative director of Word Maven Music and owner of Song Maven Studio in Toronto. Debra’s songs have won multiple awards in international songwriting contests, such as the International Songwriting Competition, John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Unisong International Songwriting Contest, Billboard World Songwriting Contest, Nashville Songwriters Association International, and the Austin Songwriters Group.
With a DMA in composition from Cornell University, James Grant has been commissioned by individuals, choruses, chamber ensembles and orchestras who have performed his music throughout the world. In 2002, Jim was one of five American composers to win the Aaron Copland Award. In 2004, he won the Sylvia Goldstein Award, sponsored by Copland House. His colorful musical language is known by musicians and audiences for its honed craft and immediacy, and his ability to compose music appropriate to specific levels of experience has found him working with groups ranging from professional orchestras, choruses, solo recitalists, new music ensembles and ballet companies to community choruses, university choral and instrumental ensembles, and youth orchestras. His music is regularly programmed at music festivals, symposia, and clinics; and his desire to compose new music for a given repertoire and specific instrumentation has led to many successful consortium commissions.
