X avier Muzik is a composer and producer fascinated by the mechanisms people use to assign and ascribe essence and purpose to individuals, places, and things, and how these assignments and ascriptions come to be understood as inherent characteristics. As a Black, multiracial man, Xavier was introduced to the fluid, normative nature of essence through the near-constant negotiations around race he’s experienced. This has taught Xavier that the American social order demands that race is not just a part of our identities, but, for better or for worse, at the very root of who we are. His compositional practice inspects and dissects this assertion in both a literal and figurative sense.

 

In his music, Xavier initially began to explore the mechanisms of essence by dissecting the essentialism of race itself through the appropriation of analytical tools for acts of synthesis to reverse engineer and define his identity on his own terms. This process is iterative, slow, and intentional, but necessary as each step further refines Xavier's sense of self.

 

As this pursuit is lifelong, it does not represent the limit of Xavier's creative interests and output. He has replicated this approach to inspect his relationship to the essential nature of realms beyond race, such as community, spiritualism, and love often using common musical conventions in unique ways to do so. Because of this, his music tends to be intentionally organized, narrative in structure, and harmonically rich.

 

Xavier Muzik holds a Master's Degree in Music Composition and a graduate minor in Creative Community Development from the Mannes School of Music at The New School. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition from the California Institute of the Arts.

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