X avier Muzik is fascinated by the tools we use to assign meaning and purpose to the world around us. For him, this inquiry began with race. Through lifelong negotiations around racial identity, Xavier came to understand the fluid and socially constructed nature of so-called “essential characteristics.” For example, in the United States, race is often framed as an immutable facet of identity frequently operationalized to justify profound harm. Xavier sought to challenge this frame.

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Xavier’s creative practice inspects and dismantles the idea that anything is truly essential, as it were. He first approached this work by employing analytical tools typically used for musical examination and critique, repurposing them as tools of synthesis to explore and define his racial identity on his own terms. While this inquiry is ongoing, it does not encompass the full scope of his artistic output.

 

Xavier extends this same methodology to realms beyond race, including mental health, spiritualism, and human connection. Across these domains, he employs metaphor and musical convention as compositional tools, using music as a space to challenge, question, and reconstruct meaning.

 

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 undergraduate degree in Music Composition from the California Institute of the Arts. He's composed for ensembles such as the LAPhil, the San Francisco Symphony, ETHEL String Quartet, and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. 

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