Alexandra Harwood is a BAFTA Cymru Award-winning composer, whose films have screened worldwide. Alexandra composed the original score for Mike Newell’s feature The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society starring Lily James. Prior to this composed the scores for feature film The Escape directed by Dominic Savage and starring Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper; and Growing Up Wild, a feature documentary for Disney/Netflix.
Recent works include Thatcher (BBC2, 5 part documentary series), A Chapter in Her Life (Universal Studios Feature) and Jerricho animation short film for Escape Studios, nominated for BAFTA LA Student Awards.
Alexandra is a classically trained composer. After graduating from the Royal College of Music (Dip Mus) and The Juilliard School (Mmus), she was Composer in Residence for the Juilliard Drama Division, during which time she wrote music for theatre productions in the US and UK and worked with actors including Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Laura Linney, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tim Nelson and Audra McDonald. Amongst numerous commissions that have been performed worldwide are four pieces for iMusicanti’s St John’s Smith Square 2018 concert series; Automatic Flesh for Ballet Rambert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; The Happy Prince (cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra), St John’s Smith Square, London; I Hear a Drum (voice and percussion) for Audra McDonald, Avery Fisher Hall, NY; Sonatina, The National Flute Convention chosen repertoire, 2009 and 2018, USA; Theme and Variations written for Sir Ronald Harwood’s 70th Birthday, performed in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Success in theatre and concert work led to Alexandra to take an MA in film composition at the National Film and Television School, which was the start of her career as a film composer. Her music for film has won awards and nominations with BAFTA LA (nomination 2020), British Animation Awards Best Sound and Music (Winner 2018), BAFTA Cymru (Winner 2015), BIFA (2013), Anima Mundi, Edinburgh Film Festival, IDFA and Locarno.
Film and television work includes scores for BBC animations for director Anna Humphries, A Celebration of Harry Potter Warner Bros. Orlando USA, Neck and Neck animation for MewLab Winner British Animation Awards Best Sound/Music 2018 , Dancing in Circles, which was awarded the BAFTA Cymru Best Short Award (2015); Z1 directed by Gabriel Gauchet - winner of the Best Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2014 and received a Locarno Award nomination in 2013; BBC documentary Girlfriend in a Coma, directed by Annalisa Piras; BBC ‘ideas’ animations, Channel 5 series The Secret Life of Puppies and Kittens; Channel 4/Animal Planet US feature documentary Yeti or Not?; BBC4 documentary series What a Performance – Pioneers of Popular Entertainment; No Man’s Land, which won Best International Documentary at the Tehran International Short Film Festival, and received an IDFA nomination and broadcast DN2 Denmark; Kids Say, an animation TV series broadcast in Hong Kong in 2014; short The Substitute which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2015; and NightDare which was nominated for several Royal Television Society Awards, including Best Sound and Music in 2015.
