Biography
- BA, Wesleyan University
- MM, Indiana University
- DMA, Temple University
Alexander deVaron has studied composition with Maurice Wright, Peter Lieberson, Donal Fox, Alvin Lucier, Paul Moravec and several other leading composers. His music has been performed across North America, as well as in Europe and Asia. He has received commissions from the Network for New Music, The Tufts University New Music Ensemble, the New England Conservatory Chorus, trumpeter Steven Burns, and poet Thalia Field.
deVaron came to Temple as a doctoral student in Composition with a full teaching assistantship in Theory. At Temple he received the Presser Music Award for excellence in composition, as well as the Dr. B. Stimson Carrow award and the Dr. R. Bruce Archibald Tribute Award, both in the field of music theory.
In addition to serving on the music faculty at Temple, he has also taught at Swarthmore College, Westminster Choir College, and Montgomery County Community College, teaching everything from a freshman remedial course in fundamentals to a graduate seminar in post-tonal theory.
He maintains a keen interest in world music. During his years at Wesleyan University, he was a member of an African Drumming ensemble led by master drummer Abraham Adzenia, and trained in the performance of South Indian classical music, with the singer and flutist, Tagiore Vishwanathan, as well as the drummer Tagiore Ranganathan. During his time at Wesleyan, he also studied the music of China, Japan, Indonesia and Turkey.
deVaron is also one of the leading teachers of stress management and mindfulness meditation in the Philadelphia area. He serves as the shastri (senior teacher) of the Shambhala Meditation Center of Philadelphia, and for many years taught the eight-week foundation course in Stress Management for the University of Pennsylvania healthcare system.