Composer • Bass Guitarist • Researcher

Intercultural new music composer, performer, researcher.

Alex Chilvers is a Sydney-based composer, bass guitarist, and Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. With the Bark Tin Band and a growing circle of collaborators, his work explores dialogue between western classical, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and South Asian traditions across composition, performance, and pedagogy.

View selected works
Bark Tin Band • Intercultural music • Aural pedagogy
About
Short and long biography for presenters, collaborators, and institutions.

Short bio

Ale Chilvers is a Sydney-based composer, bass guitarist, and Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. His work spans contemporary chamber music, intercultural collaboration, and practice-led research, with a focus on dialogue between western classical, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and South Asian traditions. Alex co-founded and composes for Bark Tin Band, who will release their debut record Tang Suite on the ABC Classic label in 2026. His teaching and scholarship centre on inclusive curriculum design, intercultural musicianship, and the evolving role of the conservatory in culturally diverse societies.

Long bio

Alex Chilvers is a composer, bass guitarist, researcher, and Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, where he leads a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate aural units and supervises a broad range of research projects. His creative work explores intercultural collaboration and contemporary composition, drawing on diverse musical languages to create performance environments rooted in dialogue, reciprocity, and shared learning.

Alex co-founded the Bark Tin Band with pipa player Lulu Liu and has recently collaborated closely with musicians such as harpsichordist Anthony Abouhamad and percussionist Pirashanna Thevarajah. The band's debut record Tang Suite, a multi-movement work inspired by Dunhuang pipa manuscripts and Tang-era cultural mobility, was commissioned by the ABC and will be released in 2026. 2026 will also see the premiere of Pillars and Sails for guzheng ensemble, pipa, violin, and bass guitar.

As an educator and researcher, Alex is committed to transforming the Australian conservatory by engaging migrant musical expertise and fostering inclusive intercultural pedagogy. His writing addresses cultural mobility, institutional change, and practice-led research, with forthcoming chapters in volumes on music and cultural mobility.

Works & Projects
A curated selection of recent and representative pieces across composition, intercultural projects, and ensemble work.
Featured work · Bark Tin Band

Tang Suite (2023–24)

Pipa, harpsichord & bass guitar • Bark Tin Band • Duration: 23 minutes • ABC Classic release (early 2026)

Tang Suite is a multi-movement work for the unusual trio of pipa, harpsichord and bass guitar, commissioned by ABC Classic and written for Bark Tin Band. Inspired by the historic Silk Road city of Dunhuang, the piece engages closely with the Dunhuang pipa pu manuscripts from the “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas”, with each movement drawing on one or more of the twenty-five preserved pipa melodies as a springboard for new intercultural dialogue.

Across five movements – Prelude, Shoegazing, Tilting Cups, Interlude, and Agitato-tranquillo – the work explores contrasting chronotopes of musical time, the exchange of notated and oral traditions, and the different expressive worlds of the three instruments, composed in close collaboration with Lulu Liu and Anthony Abouhamad.

Chamber work

Lisboa Chime (2024)

Pipa & bass guitar • Duration: 6 minutes

The 2023 European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME) meeting brought together musicians and researchers from across Europe, Asia, America, and Australia, and featured live performances showcasing instruments such as erhu, liuqin, and morin khuur, a demonstration of Chinese shadow puppetry, and discussions on topics including the Dai elephant-foot drum and Kunqu opera.

At the nearby Palace of Mafra, attendees viewed a newly installed exhibition of Chinese musical instruments and listened together to the bells of Mafra’s UNESCO World Heritage Listed carillon – an instrument of immense scale with earth-rumbling bass notes and prominent minor-third overtones. These experiences all contributed directly to this work’s composition.

Keyboard work

Chainwheel (2021)

Harpsichord, four hands • Duration: 12 minutes

Chainwheel was commissioned by Heath Henn and Anthony Abouhamad, and premiered at the Sydney Unitarian Church in June 2021.

A uniquely modern work for a unique historical instrument, it was conceived as a response to Mozart's Sonata for four hands in B-flat major (KV 358). Small fragments from the eighteenth-century work are subjected to a range of transformations to create a large-scale, high-energy piece that draws on the full expressive range of the double-manual harpsichord.

For a fuller catalogue or specific score requests, please get in touch.
Research & Writing
Selected publications, chapters, and presentations on cultural mobility, intercultural pedagogy, and conservatory transformation.

Current focus

Alex's research examines how our cultural backgrounds influence our perception of music and how conservatories in Australia can become more dialogic and representative of the communities they serve, engaging migrant expertise and intercultural collaboration as catalysts for institutional change.

Much of this work is grounded in practice-led projects with the Bark Tin Band and other intercultural ensembles, combining creative output, curriculum design, and aural pedagogy to rethink how listening, analysis, and performance can host encounters between western classical, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and South Asian traditions.

Selected outputs

  • “Your Song,” My Chords: A Phenomenological Analysis of Ellie Goulding’s Cover (forthcoming book chapter with Pat O'Grady).
  • Democratising Musical Knowledge: Intercultural Collaboration in Music Creation and Conservatory Education (2025 presentation at the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance 48th World Conference).
  • Intercultural dialogue and the mobilisation of aural skills (2023 article in Music Education Research, with Lulu Liu).
  • The Effects of Cultural Source Sensitivity on Music Appreciation (2023 article in Psychology of Music with Yixue Quan, Kirk Olsen, and Bill Thompson).

A full list of publications and presentations is available on request.

News & Recent Activity
A brief snapshot of recent and upcoming projects, recordings, and collaborations.
  • Early 2026
    Recording of Tang Suite with Bark Tin Band to be released by ABC Classic.
  • 2025 Sep/Oct
    Performances with Bark Tin Band in Limerick, Cork, and Dublin (Ireland) with guest artist Thomas Ranjo (satsuma biwa). Included the premiere of new composition ...they realigned their ranks (for biwa, pipa, and bass guitar).
  • 2024 Nov
    Performances with Lulu Liu, Evgeny Sorkin, Anna Reid, and Ray Lin in Guangzhou and Xi'an (China). Included the premiere of new composition Lisboa Chime (for pipa and bass guitar).
Contact
For commissions, collaborations, performances, workshops, or media enquiries.

Alex welcomes enquiries from performers, ensembles, festivals, academic institutions, and community organisations interested in new work, intercultural projects, aural skills teaching, or research collaboration.

Email: Available at the University of Sydney website.

Additional materials (extended bio, CV, repertoire list, scores, and recordings) are available on request.

Electronic press kit

If you are programming Alex's music or hosting a project, a concise press kit (150-word bio, photos, program notes, and selected audio) can be provided.

To receive an EPK, please include brief details of your organisation, project, and likely dates in your message.