Born 4/9/1951, Buenos Aires, Argentina. British citizen since 1994.Alejandro Viñao studied composition with the Russian composer Jacobo Ficher in Buenos Aires. In 1975 he moved to Britain where he continued his studies at the Royal College of Music and later at the City University in London where in 1988 he was awarded a Ph.D. in composition.Viñao has received a number of international prizes and awards including the 'Golden Nica' Prix Ars Electronica, 1st Prize at The International Rostrum at the Unesco World Music Council, the Guggenheim fellowship in composition and many others.Viñao's music has been played and broadcast world-wide and has been featured in international festivals such as the Tanglewood Festival and the London PROMS. He has received commissions from various performing groups and institutions around the world such as I.R.C.A.M, in France, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and many others. His opera Rashomon was  was commissioned by ZKM for the opening of their new building in Karlsruhe. After the success of the German premiere Rashomon has been produced in Paris, London and Gothenburg.
 
Alejandro Viñao's music is characterised by the use of pulsed rhythmic structures to create large scale form, and by a melodic writing which -as in the case of much non-European music- develops through rhythm rather than harmony.
Viñao has written music for a wide range of musical genre including opera, music-theatre, choral, instrumental and electro-acoustic compositions. He has also been involved with the creation of multimedia works, has composed music for some 20 films and produced several radio programmes for the BBC.