Jason Alder is a contemporary, improvising, and electronic musician. Originally hailing from the metro Detroit area, since 2006 he has based himself in Amsterdam. An active clarinet and bass clarinetist, he keeps a busy performance schedule as a soloist, improviser, chamber and session musician, and with various orchestras, jazz ensembles, and bands in the United States and Europe, also sometimes playing saxophones. Always seeming to find himself on the musical fringe, Jason is a specialist in new and contemporary music. He has been working closely with composers while in Amsterdam, having premiered several pieces solo or as part of an ensemble. As an improviser, he is a founding member of the electro-acoustic improvisation duo Sonido 13; is a member of the Magic Lantern Show Orchestra, which improvises soundtracks to silent films; works with members of the improvised dance and theater community; and plays often with other members of the Amsterdam improvised and experimental music scene. Jason is also a founding member of the klezmer trio Payazen, praised as The World's Finest Buskers, which has taken him to the Glastonbury Festival and on tours around Italy, the UK, Ireland, and Hungary.

An alumnus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts summer programs, he holds Bachelor of Music degrees from the classical departments of both Michigan State University (US- Clarinet Performance), and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (NL- Bass Clarinet). Jason is currently pursuing a Master's of Music in creative improvisation in the jazz department of the ArtEZ Conservatorium (NL) and has also directed a significant amount of his studies towards computer/electronic music, ethnomusicology, and audio engineering. His teachers and instructors have included Richard Alder, Richard Hawkins, Kimberly Cole, Andrew Harwood, Frank Ell, Erik van Deuren, Yaniv Nachum, Michael Lowenstern, David Krakauer, Ernesto Molinari, Frank Gratkowski, Claudio Puntin, Wilbert de Joode, Michael Vatcher, and Michael Moore. He also studied electronic and computer music with Mark Sullivan, live electronics and Max/MSP with Jos Zwaanenburg, and both the classical reading and jazz improvisation tracts of Advanced Rhythm/Contemporary Music through Non Western Techniques (South Indian classical Karnatic music) with Jos Zwaanenburg and Rafael Reina.

He has performed in the Berliner Philharmonie, at the International Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Amsterdam's Muziekgebouw in 2006 & 2009, as well as the 2008 & 2010 Internationale Saxofoonweek in Amsterdam. In 2009 he attended the IMPULS International Ensemble- and Composers-Academy for Contemporary Music in Austria where he worked with members of Klangforum Wien, as well as premiering three pieces in the groundbreaking MELE (Motion Enabled Live Electronics) concert, which resulted in a paper being accepted to the 2009 Sound and Music Computing Conference. In addition, Jason produces in various genres of electronic and electro-acoustic music as a member of the collective TransformersDetroit, including a piece for bass clarinet and electronics, A'd amssong, and with hip-hop producer Das. Past projects include playing bass guitar, saxophones, clarinets, or electronics in various bands including Exchange Bureau, June Ruin, and Spinfist.

In addition to teaching clarinet and saxophone lessons, with Sonido 13 he also gives workshops on non-idiomatic improvisation. Jason is also a skilled recording engineer and editor, and operates a small recording business, N&K Music and Audio, out of the Detroit and Amsterdam areas. Beginning his training working in the Recording Services department while studying at MSU, he has over 10 years of experience specializing in live concert and solo to mid-sized ensemble studio recordings. He has engineered recordings for numerous solo, chamber ensemble, band, orchestra, and choral events in southeast Michigan and Amsterdam, as well as his own classical and stage band recordings.