Alexander Frey
Conductor, Pianist, Organist
Receiving international acclaim for his “wide-ranging genius”, Alexander Frey’s unique career as conductor, pianist, organist, and recording artist literally defines the word “virtuoso”. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors and enjoys success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Hollywood and Broadway. Leonard Bernstein referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".
The immense breadth of his enormous success in so many musical genres has resulted in many unique (and, in numerous cases, historic) achievements, leading the Prague Post to observe that “Alexander Frey has had an enormous impact on Europe’s music scene. He has managed to successfully straddle the line between ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ music (arguably a faulty demarcation). Frey is as at home with Mahler symphonies (which he can conduct from memory) as he is with Bernstein’s "West Side Story”.
He has conducted over 50 orchestras, opera companies and festivals including the:
- Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
- Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona
- Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic
- Athens State Symphony Orchestra
- Rome Philharmonic Orchestra
- I Musici del Teatro alla Scala
- Ensemble Europa (members of the Israel Philharmonic and Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestras)
- State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra
- Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon)
- Cairo Symphony Orchestra
And among many others.
As pianist and organist, he has performed with over 30 symphony orchestras including the:
- Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
- San Francisco Symphony
- Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
- Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona
- Munich Symphony Orchestra
- Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
- Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (ORF)
- Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra)
- Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester
And many more, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, John Mauceri, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Alexander Frey has also been Music Director for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival (where he was awarded the festival’s Critics’ Prize), Teatro La Fenice (Venice Festival), Theater an der Wien, Vienna (Wiener Festwochen), Holland Festival, and the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
A highly honored recording artist, Alexander Frey is a Billboard Classical Music Chart® Top 10 Artist as both conductor and pianist. He has received almost every major recording award in the field, including the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, ECHO Klassik Prize, Deutscher Schallplatten Prize, Choice of the French Media Critics, BBC Critics Choice, Best Recording of the Year (Fi Magazine), Best Original Cast Recording of the Year-2005 (Borders Music), and Favorite Record of the Year-2005 (ArkivMusic). Frey's recording of Korngold’s Between Two Worlds (Decca) was listed by Gramophone Magazine as one of the “250 Greatest Recordings of All Time". Alexander Frey's CDs and DVDs are on the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Sony, Koch International Classics, RCA Red Seal, eOne, and Bach Guild labels.