Aleksandra Vrebalov was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, on September 22, 1970. She studied composition with Miroslav Statkic at Novi Sad University for her B.M. (1987-1992), Zoran Erich at Belgrade University (1993-1994), Elinor Armer at the San Francisco Conservatory (1995-1996), and Ivana Loudova at the Prague Academy of Music (1997).
Her compositions have been performed in Yugoslavia, Holland (The Ijsbreker—Amsterdam and Gigant—Apeldoorn), Poland, Bulgaria, Russia (Chaikovsky Conservatory—Moscow), USA (Herbst Theater and Davies Symphony Hall—San Francisco; Frederic Lowe Theater, Merkin Hall—New York, Tanglewood), Czech Republic (Moravian Symphony Hall—Olomouc, Lichstenstein Palace, Obecny Dum—Prague), Austria (Staatsoper—Vienna), France (Theatre de la Ville—Paris), Great Britain (Barbican Centre—London), Turkey, and Greece.

Her compositions have been played by the Kronos Quartet (USA), Jorge Caballero (USA), Sausalito String Quartet (USA), Utrect String Quartet (Holland), Tanglewood Music Center Fellow (USA), Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Robert Aitken (Canada), San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra (USA), Ad Lbitum Ensemble (Yugoslavia), and Jeunesse Musicale Choir (Yugoslavia).

She has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, Merkin Concert Hall Zoom Series, Ad Lbitum Ensemble, and Jancic Fund. Her compositions have been recorded for Nonesuch, TRV Novi Sad, TRV Belgrade, Croatian Radio, Macedonian TV, Novi Sad Academy of Arts Sound Series, and Vienna Modern Masters. She has received the Vienna Modern Masters Recording Award (1997), and an award for the Highsmith Composition Competition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was a Mac Dowell Fellow in 1998, a Tanglewood Fellow in 1999, and most recently, a Rockefeller Bellagio Center Fellow in 2000.