ARRANGING
Alex is a highly skilled and sought after arranger / orchestrator, with extensive experience working on projects in theatre, television, concert and recorded works. While her love is primary in vocal and string arranging, she’s always up for a challenge and loves to collaborate with artists to bring their musical dreams to life. Have a read through below on some of her previous work…
THEATRE & TELEVISION
Since 2021 I’ve had the pleasure of working on theatrical projects for companies like La Boite Theatre and The Little Red Company, which have often required me to transform music to work within the ensembles and casts you see on stage. Rachel Burke’s Fancy Long Legs was a co-production between La Boite & Little Red, that transformed Rachel Burke’s beautiful children’s book into a live stage show with original music composed by Waveney Yasso. As the story is set underneath a crafter’s cart, I wanted to focus on using twinkly-like sounds to support our vocalists, and built a lot of the sounds in the show out of things like ripping paper, scribbling with textas, using toy instruments, and I even made a beat out of stitching on a sewing machine! It was such a joy to bring that world to life.
Some of my favourite work was writing arrangements for Little Red’s shows Your Song, a beautiful show with real-life stories set to Elton John’s incredible music, and Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves, stories of sisterhood, individuality and the power of music set to the iconic soundtracks of the Sister Act films. Both shows had casts of incredibly skilled vocalists, which meant I could really craft some of the most intricate harmonies throughout the shows - I think my favourites include a choral / acappella setting of “Funeral For A Friend”, and a whimsical folky ballad spin on “I Am Light” by India Arie.
I also served as Choral Director & Arranger for the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols from 2021 to 2024, Brisbane’s premier Christmas event produced by Brisbane City Council and The Little Red Company, and televised nationally on Channel 9. For those four years I spent a good 5 - 6 months making Christmas musical magic for the show-stopping production held at Brisbane’s iconic Riverstage, where I’ve worked with a multitude of artists including Kate Miller-Heidke, Dami Im, Queensland Ballet, Ngaiire, Johnny Manuel, Troy and Jem Cassar-Daley, Sheppard and many more, as well as leading a dynamic team of choristers and vocalists each year. This particular project saw me writing for ensembles big and small, working with our orchestra of incredible strings and horns sections, and our ridiculously talented rhythm section.
Below are a few of my favourite arrangements from over the years, but you can view the full concerts for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 by clicking through to their respective playlists. While most of the below clips are indeed festive tunes, I can guarantee - there ain’t no Christmas like an AVDB Christmas! This show sees me working on the biggest variety of genres - anything from big band jazz to country, pop, close harmony vocal groups, classical and everything in between. It is the most fun!
Previous projects and clients also include Rainbow Bop, Outside The Jukebox, Vocal Australia, The Voice Australia and many more.
CHORAL & VOCAL ENSEMBLES
My biggest love and favourite thing to work on will forever be music for choral and vocal ensembles. Whether it’s a large 70+ voice choir, or a small 8 or less vocal ensemble, I strive to create arrangements that are full of musical and vocal excellence, and that let every voice shine. I’ve had the pleasure of writing for a huge range of ensembles locally here in Brisbane, across Australia and even abroad overseas. Personally, I have a bit of a soft spot for a big juicy ballad - because choirs singing sad songs, isn’t already sad enough - it has to have maximum feels!! Below are a few of my favourite recorded arrangements from over the years below.
PLEASE NOTE: so many more recordings and arrangements are available for purchase via my catalogue - please click here or via the tab above.
OTHER PROJECTS
Although the predominate line of my work is vocal arranging, I absolutely love getting to work across a multitude of genres and ensembles, anything from choral ensembles to string arrangements, big band charts, electronic music and more. Previous projects include orchestral rock symphony arrangements for powerhouse Gold Coast band Selve, big band swing charts for Australian theatre supergroup Swing On This, electro-poppy girl group realness for children’s show Rainbow Bop, impressive close vocal harmony goodness for powerhouse vocalists Outside The Jukebox, a myriad of a cappella projects for my friends at Vocal Australia, gorgeous string and vocal moments for The Little Red Company and so many more.