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 the City University in London. He has been resident in Britain since then. In 1988 he was awarded a Ph.D. in composition at the City University.

Viñao has received a number of international prizes and awards including the 'Golden Nica' Prix Ars Electronica, first prize at The International Rostrum at the Unesco World Music Council 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, the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the London PROMS.

His work has been presented in ‘portrait concerts’ in Japan, the United States and Europe and his compositions has been the subject of research in universities in Europe and the United States.

He has received commissions from various performing groups and institutions around the world such as I.R.C.A.M, in France, M.I.T. in the United States and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Group du Researche Musical at Radio France. His opera Rashomon was commissioned by ZKM for the opening of their new building in Karlsruhe, Germany. Rashomon was later produced in Paris, London and Sweden.

Viñao has worked at IRCAM in France at regular intervals and has been composer in residence joining the faculty at M.I.T., Yale University, Cambridge University and other institutions.

Viñao has written music for a wide range of musical genres including opera, music-theatre, choral, orchestral and electro-acoustic compositions. He has created multimedia works, composed music for some twenty films and produced several radio programmes for the BBC. His works have been played by the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Sinfonietta, the Ensemble Modern and many other international ensembles.

His 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.

In recent years Viñao has moved in a new direction composing vocal works such as The Baghdad Monologue, Greed, Fear and Poems & Prayers, which focus on contemporary social and political issues. Another strand of Viñao’s output consists of a wide range of percussion works which have become standard repertoire.