John Alexander writes: "This is the way it goes. It goes like this: there is no alternative. This is the only way, without compromise. This is the path to take and maintain. It is this solitary pathway, without deviation, to proceed on through this passage. This is the single track, the sole route, all along this singular axis. Facing this music, this life, this thought, moving in the same direction, constantly on the same line. This is the trail to cover, without negotiation, via this avenue of non-arbitration. This is it.

Is this it? Only this one way to go?"

no plan B was premiered at Bass-Fest 2013 on 6 August 2013 at the Silk Mill (Frome, Somerset) by Eloise Riddell, Ben Groenevelt, Claus Freudenstein, Alison McNaught and Josie Jobbins.

John Alexander was born in West Sussex in 1942 and began to compose at the age of 20. At the time he discovered a fascination for art, literature, dance, architecture and sculpture and these topics, along with mathematics, have continued to have a bearing on his work. He studied composition with Edmund Rubbra at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and later with Jonathan Harvey and Peter Wiegold at the University of Sussex.

John Alexander has never been a prolific composer, but an impressive and growing body of work reflects a rare eye for detail and structure - each work beautifully crafted and reworked until every inflection, detail and nuance is perfect. Probably best described as a miniaturist, he writes in a fluent, independent and strongly personal style with an intense desire to create music which communicates to both performer and audience alike.

In 1999 John Alexander won the 1st BIBF Composition Contest and was invited to be a judge for several BIBF competitions. He was a featured composer at Bass-Fest 2001, was an spnm short-listed composer for three years, and was Composer-in-residence at the 2004 Rotterdam Conservatoire Double Bass Weekend, Bass-Fest 2006 and 2007 Wells Double Bass Weekend. His works have been performed and broadcast throughout the world and he was written an impressive and unique body of work for double bass.