Alexander Schwarzkopf: Musical Reflections during Pandemic

Alexander J. Schwarzkopf was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Alexander is regularly featured as pianist and composer at festivals and concert series such as Makrokosmos Project Festival in Portland, Oregon, Pianoforte Series at the Asheville Art Museum and Klavierfestival-Lindlar, where he has been invited for concerts and lectures. Alexander has performed cutting-edge new music by composers from the United States and abroad as well as his own works at the Oregon Bach Festival and John Donald Robb Composers Symposiums, Cascadia Composers (NACUSA) and the Schultz Seminar at Stanford. Alexander has given masterclasses throughout the United States, at UFRGS Conservatory in Porto Alegre, Brazil and at DTKV and Klavierfestival-Lindlar in Germany. Alexander has been a jury member for MTNA local and regional piano and composition competitions and has given lectures on his current research “Visualization in Music: Translating the Contours of Melodic Lines into Physical Movements” for Oregon Music Teachers Association Eugene and Portland chapters.   Among other awards, Alexander was a finalist at the Silvio Bengali International Piano Competition in Pianello, Italy. Known for his diverse repertoire, Alexander has been featured in performances of a wide array of works such as the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach, the Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage or the Makrokosmos by George Crumb. As a composer, Alexander has received commissions from organizations such as the Oregon Music Teachers Association, Bill Evans Dance and the Drama Department at the University of New Mexico. In 2017, Alexander received a commission for the award Composer of the Year for OMTA to compose a piano concerto, titled “PSi.”  A finalist for the MTNA Distinguished Composer of the Year, the concerto is now in the catalogue of the national archives. Alexander has been Visiting Artist Piano Faculty at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and faculty at the Klavierfestival-Lindlar and DeutcherTonKünstlerVerein “Musik Aktiv” festivals in Germany. Alexander’s incisive recording of Falko Steinbach’s “Figures: 17 Choreographic Etudes” on the Centaur Records label can be found on Amazon, iTunes and other major catalogues internationally. Alexander holds the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of Oregon, and currently lives and conducts his private teaching studio in Eugene, Oregon.  For more information on Alexander, please visit www.ajsmusic.org.