We’re excited to welcome Alex Wand as the new head of the RC Music Program!
Alex took classes in the RC as an undergrad, and now he’s back - bringing that experience full circle as a teacher and program leader.
A composer, songwriter, and educator, Alex is passionate about creating a space for process-oriented creativity where students can explore music both in the classroom and beyond. From outdoor music-making sessions to community concerts in the Keene Theater, he’s eager to connect music with creativity, collaboration, and social impact.
Read our interview with him below!
Q1. What excites you most about joining the RC community, especially as the new head of the Music Program?
A: I’m thrilled to be back in by home state and my alma mater. I took RC classes as an undergrad and it’s meaningful for me to get to contribute to the RC community as a teacher and head of the Music Program. I’m most excited about cultivating a space for process-oriented creativity with the students and fellow faculty and putting on concerts at the Keene Theater.
Q2. What role has music played in your own life or journey?
A: My family always valued music when I was a kid. We would go to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and my grandparents would pay for my classical guitar lessons. In high school, I started playing electric guitar in bands and in college I got more into music composition and songwriting.
Lately, I’ve been combining my music with interests in ecology and field recording. For example, my latest project involves a series of long-distance cycling trips where I follow the migration of the Western monarch butterfly and create a soundmap of their migratory corridors. The project is called Monarch Waystation Soundmap and my forthcoming album, Spectre, is the electroacoustic composition that I made which documents these cycling trips through songs and field recordings.
Q3. What’s something fun or unexpected students might hear or experience in one of your classes?
A: There will be a lot of outdoor listening and music-making activities (weather permitting!). The first day of the songwriting class for example, I am planning for us to go to the arboretum and each write an original melody based on poems by Carl Sandburg and Alison Swan.
Q4. The RC values creativity, community, and social impact—how does music help us explore those things?
A: As musicians and artists, we can imagine and enact different ways of being in the world and model a different kind of social relations in our work. Musicians like Bob Marley, Woody Guthrie, Harry Partch, Brenda Hutchinson, and Eliane Radigue have all done this. They have shown how music can be engaged with communities around us and how music can help create the conditions for emancipatory futures. This is the kind of music I want to make and cultivate as a teacher.
Q5. Quickfire faves: Favorite instrument, favorite musician, and favorite place to hear live music?
A: Viola da gamba, Moondog, The Ark
