Alexina Louie for kids: her life, her music, and what to play first

Alexina Louie is a Canadian composer who was born in Vancouver in 1949. She writes for orchestras, opera, film, and solo piano, and her music joins the sounds of Asia with the sounds of Western classical music. She has also written three sets of piano pieces for young players. The best first piece for a child is one from Star Light, Star Bright, her set of nine pieces about the night sky.

Quick facts

• Born: 1949, in Vancouver, British Columbia
• Lives in: Toronto, Ontario
• Era: Living composer
• Plays: piano
• Known for: music that blends Asian and Western sounds, and piano pieces for students

The life in short

Louie began piano lessons at seven. At 17, she earned her ARCT diploma in piano, an advanced diploma of the Royal Conservatory.

She studied music at the University of British Columbia. Then she moved to California for graduate study in composition at the University of California, San Diego. There she also studied Chinese music.

She stayed in California through the 1970s and taught piano, theory, and electronic music at two colleges near Los Angeles.

In 1980, she came back to Canada and settled in Toronto. She has focused on composing ever since.

In 1986, the world’s fair came to her home city. Louie wrote “The Ringing Earth” for the opening of Expo 86 in Vancouver.

She has won two Juno Awards for her compositions. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2021, she received a Governor General’s award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

What the music sounds like

Louie’s music combines Asian and Western sounds. Much of it is calm and thoughtful, in the manner of a meditation.

She studied Chinese music as well as Western composition, and both are in her work.

Many of her titles point to the sky, the stars, and the natural world.

Pieces to play first

Star Light, Star Bright. Nine short piano pieces about the stars. Two of them are “Distant Star” and “Shooting Stars.” Ask your child to guess how each one sounds before you play it.

Music for Piano. Another of her sets for students.

“The Ringing Earth.” A piece for orchestra, written for the opening of Expo 86 in Vancouver.

Take the Dog Sled. A piece for a small group of instruments and two Inuit throat singers. The Montreal Symphony Orchestra asked her to write it for a tour of Nunavik, in northern Quebec, in 2008.

For piano students

Louie has written three sets for young pianists: Music for Piano, Star Light, Star Bright, and Small Beautiful Things. The pieces are written in a modern style, with sounds a student will not meet in older music.

A student who has played only older music may find them strange at first. That is a good reason to try one.

Things to do together

Stars first. Look at the night sky. Then play “Distant Star.” Ask how the music shows something far away.

Hold the pedal. At a piano, press the right pedal and play one low note and one high note. Listen until the sound is gone. Many modern piano pieces use that fading sound.

Hear throat singing. Listen to a few minutes of Take the Dog Sled. Two singers stand face to face and trade sounds back and forth. Ask your child to describe the sounds.

Find the instruments. In “The Ringing Earth,” list every instrument you hear that rings.

A living composer

Most composers on this site lived long ago. Louie is alive and writing now. Orchestras and soloists ask her for new pieces, and audiences hear them for the first time. A new piece of music is being finished somewhere today.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Alexina Louie. Read about more composers in Canadian composers for kids, women composers for kids, and living composers kids can hear today.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.

Sources

Checked in November 2026.

• The Canadian Encyclopedia. Alexina Louie.
• Wikipedia. Alexina Louie, for her diploma, Expo 86, and the Juno Awards.