Alexander Lederer studied media and communication sciences at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt and initially focused on researching Carinthian choral culture (cultural studies, identity research, cultural studies). He also trained as a composer with Jakob Gruchmann and Michael Pelzel and completed his bachelor's degree in "IGP Applied Compositional Technique" at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music in 2022. Based on his own artistic work, his research interests now focus on media music, film theory and performance studies.

His dissertation in the field of "Film Music Studies" (at the AAU in cooperation with the GMPU), which he completed with distinction in 2021, reflects this development. In it, Lederer sets out in search of the narrative autonomy of music in film and develops a (methodologically and theoretically) new approach by defining audiovisual media such as film as a performative event and therefore making it accessible to a performance-analytical, autoethnographic view. The results of the study were published in January 2023 under the title "Die Narrativität der Musik im Film" by the German publisher transcript-Verlag. The Austrian Research Foundation supported the publication. In addition, the entire research process was supported by an extensive one-year grant to promote academic work.

As a freelance composer/arranger and choir teacher, Lederer has worked on several productions in the e-choir of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and accompanied various ensembles (internal choir training) and projects (world premiere of a joint piece for the "Volks.Kult.Tour" event series of the state of Carinthia). He works for chamber orchestras, choirs, brass bands and music schools. In his own compositional work, music philosophical considerations on minimalism (only one tone/one interval/one noise), on musical notation influenced by our digital world (emoji scores, graphic notation) or on the relationship between improvisation and notation ("aleatoric canon") play a central role for him. Lederer's graphically notated piece "Breath of God" for 4-part breath choir and Gregorian improvisation was awarded the 16th International Composition Prize for Contemporary Sacred Music of the "Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik Schwäbisch-Gmünd" in summer 2023.

https://www.gmpu.ac.at/universitaet/kollegium/wissenschaftlich/202