Alexander Parsons is a musician and composer based in London, known for his work in film and television.
Recent scores include The Netflix mini-series Who Killed Jill Dando; The feature documentary Coco Chanel: Unbuttoned, directed by Hannah Berryman; Sky’s most highly-rating drama doc Flight 73, directed by BAFTA-winning director Ben Anthony; The Man Who Stole the Scream, a feature documentary that premiered at the CPH:Dox 2023; Grierson-shortlisted Amazon Prime series Curse of the Chippendales, produced by the Oscar-winning team at Lightbox, which premiered at London Film Festival 2022; Steve McQueen and Rogan-Produced BAFTA-nominated feature documentary Black Power: A British Story of Resistance, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra; and Channel 4’s award-winning lockdown hit Grayson’s Art Club.
Additional credits include the BAFTA-winning landmark BBC1 series Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation; Apple TV’s 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything; the hit BBC 2 true crime series Forensics: The Real CSI; the feature documentary Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm; Channel 4’s BAFTA-nominated Surviving Covid; the Emmy-winning, feature-length documentary In Cold Blood and the multi-award-winning BBC3 documentary series American High School, continuing a long running, collaborative relationship with director Marcus Plowright.
Alexander grew up in South London and learned to play the violin and saxophone at a young age. As a teenager, he performed on British TV and radio, as well as having the opportunity to tour Kuwait and South Africa, performing in the Cape Town Opera House. He completed a Masters degree in composition at Goldsmiths College, London and there, became interested in the study of electronic and electro-acoustic music, exploring how using coding skills to build his own software patches could influence his own sound design and music. At this time, he could also be found performing as a DJ across London and Europe, with a catalogue of electronic releases hugely inspired by works of contemporary techno and sonic artists – influences that occasionally surface in his music and sound design today.
In 2017, Alexander became a founding member of the Miro Shot collective, in which he plays his electric violin and Eurorack synthesiser, as well as composing orchestral arrangements. In May 2017, the band held a three-day residency at the Institute of Modern Art in Amsterdam, in the world’s first multi-sensory live VR and Mixed Reality concert. This was followed by a London preview at BAFTA, Piccadilly, an exclusive one-day residency at Somerset House and at La Gaïté Lyrique, Paris, as part of the all-night Nuit-Blache festival. Miro Shot have since taken their live show to SXSW two years running, embracing participants in a multi-sensory experience, controlling parameters such as wind, temperature, and even touch and enabling audiences to switch between the real and the alternated virtual worlds.
Alexander also works regularly with the Theatre of Debate and has composed scores for their productions Stunted Trees and Broken, Hungry, People Are Messy and People Like Us, which have toured throughout the UK as well as including performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“Every participant is treated with careful, considered respect… This is helped by Alexander Parsons’ impressive score, mixing tinges of the music the kids listen to with his own emotive arrangements. Six episodes of hope, just when it’s needed”.
Julia Reside (on American High School), The Guardian