Training
Alexander was born in London. At 6 years old, he won a place as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, London under organists and choirmasters John Scott and Christopher Dearnley. For the next 5 years, (as well as learning the oboe, piano and theatre skills) he was trained intensively as a Treble. He rehearsed and performed in public with the choir and as a soloist every day in the cathedral, and frequently as a paid soloist in grand venues and on foreign tours, and by the age of 10 was a consummate professional. During his career as a chorister, Alexander performed in many of the major venues and Cathedrals in London such as the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall.
On recording he featured on the Hyperion label and made numerous appearances on television, at special events, private concerts, film soundtracks and royal engagements. Solo performance highlights of his chorister career included performing at Mansion House, London for the Lord Mayor; singing with Big Bird and the Muppets for creator Jim Henson’s memorial service; performing with José Carreras under Sir Georg Solti at the Royal Festival Hall, London; for President George H W Bush at the White House, Washington; for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s 90th Birthday at Horse Guards Parade, London; with Harry Secombe on “Highway” (ITV).
When his voice broke at 13 years old, Alexander continued to develop his acting and musical skills while at Bishop’s Stortford College and began performing in musicals, while continuing his study as a baritone, working through his ABRSM singing and oboe exams and playing in the orchestra. His vocal tutors included: Susan Waters, Ben Parry (Swingle Singers) and David Porter-Thomas (Kings Singers). Alexander was accepted as a choral scholar to Kings College, Cambridge, but wanting a more performance based course won a place on the undergraduate course at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester studying with renowned English tenor, Anthony Roden and later with Colin Iveson. He won awards from the Peter Moores Foundation and the Mario Lanza Foundation. Alexander studied further at the Ferrandou Summer School in France with baritone David Wilson Johnson and coach Peter Harrison; at the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade and Corradina Caporello and studied privately in Switzerland with Nicolai Gedda; in Italy with Susanna Rigacci and in Sweden with tenor Sten Sjöstedt. He has also undertaken many masterclasses from eminent artists including Rafael Rojas, Joseph Ward, Sir Thomas Allen, David Lloyd-Jones, Bruno Rigacci, Robin Stapleton, Francesca Patané, Anna Sweeney, Anthony Legge, Paul Whelan and received specialist coaching from artists such as Anne Howells, Geoffrey Shovelton, Nigel Douglas, Martin Isepp, Jean Mallandaine, Jim Holmes, Paul Griffiths, Chris Squires, Adele Leigh and John Cameron.
Opera / Operetta
Alexander has a broad repertoire and experience from buffo roles to leading men. Amongst others, he has been a soloist under the batons of Sir Georg Solti, Kent Negano, Simon Halsey, Sir Edward Downes, Sir David Wilcocks, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Edward Gardner, Noel Davies, Tobias Ringborg and Daniel Harding and studied under many world class artists including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Nicolai Gedda, Frederica von Stada and Sir Thomas Allen. Over the course of his career he has received consistent critical acclaim from the broadsheets and magazines: Opera Magazine hailed his professional debut in 2003 as Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw as a “triumph”. Career highlights include Don José for Malmö Opera, the Son/Tenor 1 in Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden under David Radok at Göteborgs Operan, his Swiss debut as the Armed Man / Priest in Die Zauberflöte under Daniel Harding at the Lucerne Festival, Switzerland; his Finnish debut as Don Ramiro under the baton of Pier Giorgio Morandi with the Finnish National Opera; his Swedish debut receiving acclaim for his interpretation of Magnus Gabriele de la Gardie in Foroni’s bel canto opera Cristina Regina di Svezia at the Vadstena Opera Festival under Tobias Ringborg; Don Ramiro, La Cenerentola for Malmö Opera under Brad Cohen; Remendado Carmen under Marcello Mottadelli at Opera På Skäret. His Count Danilo in Lehar’s The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera was described as “the Danilo of one’s dreams” (Opera Magazine). Other highlights include the roles of Le Nos, Pytor and Yarishkin in Le Nos (Shostakovich) at Royal Opera House 2, London; Trio, Trouble In Tahiti (Bernstein) and Charlie, Mahagonny Songspiel (Weill) under John Fulljames for The Opera Group; Pierrot, Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Ullmann) under Edward Gardner and the Hallé Orchestra (which he reprised for Upfront Opera); and Lupo with the composer Hans Werner Henze as conductor on his children’s opera Pollicino. Other roles include Bajazet, Tamerlano; Hippolyte Hippolyte et Aricie (Lully) and Telemachus Il Ritorno d’UIisse in Patria (Monteverdi) for Yorke Trust Opera; Pedrillo Il Seraglio for Scottish Opera; Count von Zedlau Wiener Blut and Eisenstein, Die Fledermaus for Clonter Opera; Chinese Man The Fairy Queen (Purcell) for Armonico Touring Opera; Dottore The Jewel Box (Mozart) for Bampton Classical Opera; Fenton Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Nicolai) for Cumbria Opera; Mercury Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach) for BYO; Ben The Telephone (Menotti) for Ludlow Opera; Borsa Rigoletto (Verdi) for Mid Wales Opera; Remendado Carmen (Bizet) for Stowe Opera, Ralph Rackstraw HMS Pinafore (Sullivan) for Phoenix Opera; Colonel Fairfax Yeomen of the Guard (Sullivan) for West Cumberland Opera; Rapunzel’s Prince Into The Woods (Sondheim), Dr Caius Falstaff (Verdi), Chekalinsky Pique Dame (Tchaikovsky), Monsieur Taupe Capriccio (Strauss), Oronte Alcina (Handel), Egisto L’Egisto and La Théière L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Ravel.
World Premieres
Amongst Alexander’s specialisations is modern repertoire and repertoire in the English language. Alexander has created 10 roles in world premiere British operas with renowned British composers, librettists, poets and novelists. For Scottish Opera: the title role in Gesualdo (Ian Rankin + Craig Armstrong); the title role in Dream Angus (Stephen Deazley + Alexander McCall Smith); the role of Steve in Money Man (Lyell Creswell + Ron Butlin); the Ghost 74 Degrees North (Paul Mealor + Peter Stollery); Vitya, The Letter (Bernard Maclaverty + V Khodosh). For The Opera Group the roles of: Suit, Walking Not Driving (Tim Coker); Dean, Anything Money Can Buy (Laura Bowler); Wilson Out of the Ordinary (David Bruce); For Yorke Trust Opera: Lord Nelson, The Sailor’s Tale (Rupert Bawden) which was also recorded on the NMC Record Label (available here). For Unicorn Theatre: Karl / Prince Florian Clockwork (Stephen McNeff + Philip Pullman) and Busqueda (Mark Anthony Turnage).
In competition, Alexander was awarded male winner of the inaugural Kiri Prize - Search for an opera star by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in London recorded by the BBC with the BBC Concert Orchestra on BBC Radio 2 and televised for BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other competition wins include the Anne Ziegler Competition and 2nd prize in the Frederic Cox Award.
Oratorio
On the oratorio and concert platforms Alexander’s performed repertoire covers the majority of the major works and his performances have been heard in many of the major venues and cathedrals in the UK. Recent highlights include the tenor cantata Rinaldo (Brahms) with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and the Orphei Dränger male chorus in Sweden under Cecilia Rydinger Alin; concerts with soprano Louise Sjöstedt at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in Salzburg and at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm; with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Hackney Empire, London in A Tribute to Mario Lanza recorded live for BBC Radio 2 under Gavin Sutherland; Beethoven 9th Symphony and Messiah under Simon Halsey and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Birmingham Symphony Hall; L’Enfant du Christ under Kent Negano at the Bridgewater Hall; Viennese Operetta Gala at The Sage, Gateshead under Wyn Davies and the Northern Sinfonia; Rossini Petite Messe Solenelle under David Lloyd-Jones; A look back to the Good ‘ol Days with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Roderick Dunk + Martyn Yates; Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Ullman) at the Imperial War Museum North under Edward Gardner and the Hallé Orchestra; The Jewel Box (Mozart) at St John Smith’s Square, London. World premieres include A Song for St Stephen (John Joubert) with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Halsey.
Recording credits include the world premiere of Bawden’s The Sailor’s Tale on the NMC label in which he created the role of Lord Nelson; a world premiere for Independent Ballet Wales of Turner’s Bride of Flowers; the soundtrack of James Horner, Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas’s animated movie The Land Before Time and various prominent cinema and television soundtracks. Alexander has been heard live on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, the BBC World Service, SV and Sveriges Radio amongst others. Alexander is also featured on multiple Hyperion recordings.
Commercial
Alexander has worked frequently in the commercial side of the music business. In 2006 /7, Alexander toured the UK and Ireland’s largest venues including the MEN Arena, Birmingham NIA, O2 Millennium Dome, Royal Albert Hall, The Point Dublin and The Odyssey Arena, Belfast. He has performed with world class artists including Beverley Knight, Lee Ryan (Blue), Alexandra Burke, Sabrina Washington (Mystique), one of the world’s premiere beatboxer and urban artists, Beardyman and world famous violinist Vanessa Mae linked by satellite. He has also performed in the largest live children’s choir concerts in the world with audiences exceeding 250,000 a week and 35,000 a night with Young Voices.
In the football world, Alexander has performed for Manchester United and Bury Football Clubs. In 2009 Manchester United invited Alexander to sing at the UEFA Champions League Final in Rome.
In 2004 Alexander founded TENORI, a popular 3 Tenors act touring and performing internationally for corporate and private events and employing many of the UK’s finest operatic and musical theatre tenors.
Television
Alexander has appeared in various major UK television series for Granada Television and Yorkshire Television including Clocking Off, Brookside, Coronation Street (the UK's longest running television soap opera), Hollyoaks, At Home With The Braithwaites, Emmerdale and North Square .
Alexander has also appeared in the BBC Proms and on the operatic spoof “Anarchy in the UK” for Kombat Opera.
In 2010 he was invited by Channel 4 Television to appear alongside friends Peter Stringfellow and Lee Ryan in Channel 4 television’s “Celebrity Come Dine with Me”.
Through his performing career, Alexander has helped support various charities over the last decade including Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, CLIC Sargent Cancer Care, Cancer Research UK, The Kidney Research Fund and the British Heart Foundation.
Alexander är född i London, England. Hans solokarriär spänner närvarande 32 år och har tagit honom till alla hörn av världen, inklusive USA, Japan och Brasilien utför för publiken så varierade som 35.000 en natt arenor, till A-stegs operahus, till verkstäder med yngre barn. Genom omfattande turnerande och prestanda, har Alexander etablerat sig som ett av de mest spännande och mångsidiga tenorer att dyka upp från Storbritannien under de senaste åren.
Hans professionella sångarkarriär påbörjades redan som 7 årig gosskorist vid St Paul's Cathedral i London och han fortsatte därefter sin utbildning som Tenor vid the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Vidare har han även studerat i Frankrike för David Wilson Johnson, i Italien för Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade och Corradina Caporello vid Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, och privat i Schweiz för Nicolai Gedda, i Italien för Susanna och Bruno Rigacci och i Sverige för Sten Sjöstedt.
Alexander har medverkat och vunnit flertalet tävlingar och nu senast 2010 erhöll han priset som den manliga vinnaren i Dame Kiri Te Kanawas tävling (“ BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize”). Finalen sändes live både på BBC TV (last Night of the proms) och i BBC Radio 2 med the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Alexander har en gedigen operaerfarenhet inom en bred repertoar och har redan framfört över 50 Opera / operett roller med genomgående god kritik. Bland dessa kan nämnas hans Svenska debut vid Vadstena Akademien i världsuppförandet av Cristina Regina di Svezia av Foroni, under ledning av Tobias Ringborg; hans schweiziska debut under Daniel Harding i Trollflöjten vid Lucerne Festival; hans finska debut på finska Nationaloperan som Don Ramiro i Cenerentola under Pier Giorgio Morandi (en roll han även gjort på Malmö Operan). Andra höjdpunkter är Pytor och Yarishkin ur Le Nos (Shostakovich) vid Covent Garden - Royal Opera House; Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein) och Charlie, Mahagonny Songspeil (Weill) (The Opera Group / Royal Opera) and Count Danilo Glada Ankan, Pedrillo Il seraglio och Alfred Läderlappen för Scottish Opera. I 2013 Alexander varit engagerad vid GöteborgsOperan som greve Almaviva i Barberaren och Kapten Vere i Brittens Billy Budd tillsammans med den hovsångaren Peter Mattei under Jan Latham-Koenigs ledning och i 2015 som Gastone i La Traviata och Den Jyske Opera i Danmark som Frederico / Fritz i L’Amico Fritz.
Alexanders intresse för nyskapande musik har gett honom möjligheten att uruppföra och kreera över 10 roller i operor för bl.a Scottish Opera, och tidigare nämda operahus med ledande Brittiska kompositörer och librettister såsom Ian Rankin, Craig Armstrong, Alexander McCall Smith och Paul Mealor i; Gesualdo, Dream Angus, The Money Man, 74 Degrees North, The Letter, Walking not Driving, Anything Money Can Buy, Out of the Ordinary och The Sailor’s Tale (som även finns inspelad på NMC Record Label).
På konsert och oriatoriescenen täcker Alexanders repertoar, majoriteten av de stora verken och han har sjungit dem i flertalet av konserthus och kyrkor/katedraler runtom i Storbritannien, däribland St John Smith’s Square, the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Festival Hall och Queen Elizabeth Hall. Senaste höjdpunkter innefattar Brahms Rinaldo med Norrköpings symfoniorkester, Världsuppförandet av Joubert’s A Song for St Stephen med City of Birmingham Symphony och Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Ullmann) under Edward Gardner och the Hallé Orchestra. Flitiga galakonserter har fört honom på turneér runt Europa och övriga världen med framträdande bl.a vid Bervaldhallen, Stockholm ända till Manaus Opera House i Brazilien, ön Mustique och Tokyo, Japan. Alexander ses ofta med BBC Concert Orchestra och hördes senast på Radio i Friday Night is Music Night med programmen A Tribute to Mario Lanza and A Look Back to the Good Old Days. Alexander har också uppträtt inför publik på över 250,000 i Storbritanniens största arenor (bl.a MEN Arenan and O2 Arenan - Milleniumdomen, Royal Albert Hall), med pop artister såsom Lee Ryan, Beardyman and Beverley Knight. Alexander ades även och sjunger med TENORI, Storbritanniens finaste tre Tenors Group.
Inom Musikalvärlden i London erbjöds Alexander i 2003, titelrollen i Peter Pan i Royal Festival Hall, och förra året, rollen som Anthony Candolino i en Broadway produktion av Masterclass med “Cagney och Lacys” Tyne Daly på Vaudeville Theatre.
© LOA Group 2018