For most musicians, the launch of a new album calls for a tour of stops at local record shops and smoky music venues. But for Alexandra Pajak, MS HTS 07, a promotional circuit is much different. Over the next couple of years, the composer will be visiting scientific conferences across the country to promote her latest album, Sounds of HIV.
Listeners who play the 17-track CD from start to finish hear the entire virus genome in 52 minutes. The album, which was released by Azica Records in October, is Pajak’s third CD of DNA-inspired classical music. Her songwriting process begins not at the piano but at her computer. She locates gene sequences on an online database run by the National Institutes of Health and then assigns pitches to the nucleotides and amino acids.
So what does HIV sound like?
“It sounds strangely good,” Pajak said. “I don’t know what it is about DNA that sounds so good. It’s not random when you listen to it. It’s like you’re actually hearing the characteristics of the gene, the parts of the gene as you listen to it.”
Music for Pajak’s previous CD, based on the herpes B virus, was written while she was an intern at the National B Virus Resource Center at Georgia State University. She chose to focus on HIV this time in the hopes of attracting a wider audience.
“A lot of the DNA-based music I’ve found on the Internet was based on genomes that would appeal more to scientists than the general public. … Most all of us have been touched in some way by the HIV virus, whether that be an infected family member or friend or simply an awareness of the virus’ impact on the world,” she said.
“I also wanted to steer away from the previous DNA-based music composed. Many of the pieces online are MIDI sounds. I wanted a real instrument played by a human to express the human emotion behind the disease.”
Brought to life by a chamber group called the Sequence Ensemble, Pajak’s HIV sounds somber, sometimes peaceful and soothing and at times startlingly urgent. She likened the sound to compositions by Philip Glass, particularly his Einstein on the Beach, Hildegard of Bingen and monks of the early 12th century.
“It’s kind of formalist,” she said. “It feels open and the music’s wandering a bit, but there’s a structure. It’s kind of peaceful.”
Pajak’s songwriting career began as a teenager. Raised in Athens, Ga., she started playing instruments in middle school — she now plays seven — and received her first commissions while a student at Oconee County High School in Watkinsville, penning children’s songs for CDs released by the Ocean Society and the International Primatological Society.
Her first foray into DNA music came at Agnes Scott College, from which she received a bachelor’s degree in music. She also took countless biology courses. A genetics professor at the college learned about DNA-based music being written by scientists and approached her about composing some. Pajak, who was the pianist for the Agnes Scott Orchestra, at first found the prospect of writing music for instruments she was not familiar with daunting. But in 2003, the orchestra performed her symphony based on the DNA of the college’s namesake.
Though Pajak did not perform with any campus music groups as a graduate student at Georgia Tech, she played keyboard for the Let’s Try This! improv comedy troupe. It was an experience that taught her to think on her feet and work quickly, skills she found helpful when her record label asked her to compose enough music for a full-length CD in just a few months.
She said her education at Georgia Tech also prepared her well, instilling in her a work ethic and a drive for precision.
“It’s hard work at the time, but it’s like a mind-set that you get into. And it’s helped me with so much, especially the music writing,” Pajak said, citing School of History, Technology and Society professors Ron Bayor, Doug Flamming and Willie Pearson as role models and mentors from her time at Tech.
It was also at Tech that she met her future husband, Chris Dalbec, EE 07. The couple were married in July.
“He’s really supportive of my composing and encouraged me to compose music on a virus that has a real human element to it,” she said.
Even if her latest CD is a huge success, Pajak doesn’t plan to quit her day job anytime soon. Since graduating from Tech, she has been working as the coordinator for the Communities in Schools program at Bethune Elementary in Atlanta, helping provide community resources to inner-city school students. Her projects have included working with Borders to provide books to students and inviting state representatives to classrooms to speak about the government and the importance of going to college.
“It’s kind of a smorgasbord of things, but the basic idea is to provide interventions for those students who need it,” she said. “I’m applying a lot of what I learned at Georgia Tech. I’m using my technical writing skills I learned there, some sociology skills and I’m doing my music as well. So it’s great. I could not be happier.”
Sounds of HIV now is available through iTunes and Amazon and at retail stores, including the Barnes & Noble at Technology Square. In an effort to repay Georgia Tech for everything it taught her, Pajak will be donating a portion of the royalties from the CD to Roll Call, the Alumni Association’s annual fund.
“My mentors told me again and again growing up that you should always remember and recognize those who have helped you along the way and helped you become who you are,” she said. “I have felt so supported by Tech as a student and now as an alum. I want to contribute to a school that helped contribute to my growth and future.”
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