Biography
Alexandra was born in 1991. A graduate of the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she is based in London, United Kingdom where she has established herself as one of the most talented and versatile musicians her age, winning prizes in various competitions, being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on numerous occasions and performing extensively as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician both in the UK and abroad.
Alexandra began violin lessons at the age of 5 in Christchurch, New Zealand. During the following years she won many awards and prizes around New Zealand including the Most Promising Award at the Young Performer of the Year competition, the Ernest Empson Scholarship, the Dame Malvina Major Scholarship, the Sentinel Performers Competition (2005) and the National Concerto Competition (2008).
2006 brought Alexandra to London where she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music in London with Evgeny Grach. Through her studies there, she gave her solo recital debut at Wigmore Hall in October 2009 and, in November of the same year, at the Watford Colosseum performing Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has also performed as a soloist and chamber musician in many prestigious venues around London including, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace, Barbican Hall, Cadogan Hall, LSO St. Lukes, Princess Alexandra Hall and Kings Place. She performs regularly throughout the U.K as a recitalist and soloist through the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme. Alex is also a selected artist for Making Music, UK.
Alexandra has also performed extensively throughout Europe and internationally in many countries, including Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, China, South Korea, Russia, Israel and Singapore. A laureate of numerous competitions, Alex has won the Province of Terni Soloist Award from Associazione Mozart Italia (2014), Kenneth Loveland Gift Award, U.K (2016), Laureate Prize in the Enescu International Violin Competition (2016), Hattori Foundation Senior Award, U.K (2017) and the Development Prize at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (2017). Most recently, she has been awarded the prestigious Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists Award by the Making Music Foundation, U.K (2018).
In 2010, Alex was awarded “The Henry Weinrebe Award” scholarship by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) studying there with Professor David Takeno. Following her graduation in 2014, she commenced her postgraduate studies at The Royal College of Music with Radu Blidar and Yuri Zhislin graduating in July 2017 with a Masters in Music Performance and the Artist Diploma Qualification. She was an RCM Lark Scholar supported by a Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship and by awards from the Countess of Munster Trust, the Martin Music Scholarship Fund, the Drake Calleja Foundation and the Help Musicians UK Foundation.
An active participant in numerous masterclasses, most recently she performed as a soloist in the RCM Brahms Violin Concerto Masterclass with Maxim Vengerov and was a Laureate at the Academie de Musique de Lausanne Duo Masterclasses with Pierre Amoyale and Pavel Gililov. 2016 saw Alexandra perform in the Great Mountains Music Festival (South Korea) working with Radu Blidar and Mihaela Martin and in the International Holland Music Sessions working with Krzysztof Wegrzyn. Previously she has performed at the 2015 IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses with Ivry Gitlis and Philippe Graffin, the Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses with Pavel Vernikov and the Encuentro Santander Festival Masterclasses with Zakhar Bron and Mihaela Martin. In previous years have seen her work with other notable artists such as Yuri Volgin, Charles Castleman, Robert Rozek, Boris Brovtsyn, Natalia Prishepenko, the Belcea Quartet, the Takacs Quartet and the Endellion Quartet amongst many others.
Alex is also active as a chamber musician, performing regularly with the Corran Quartet, Alauda Quartet and Ensemble Mirage amongst others, and enjoys freelancing as a concertmaster, having lead orchestras under conductors such as Jaime Martin, Peter Csaba, Vladimir Jurowski, John Storgårds and Bernard Haitink. In 2013, Alex founded the unconducted orchestra Silk Street Sinfonia of which she is concertmaster and Artistic Director. The orchestra succesfully released a debut CD in 2014, “Silk Street Sinfonia Live in Switzerland”, performs regularly throughout Europe and hosts the annual “Silk Street Sinfonia Young Artists Competition” in London.
During the Covid Pandemic of 2020/21 Alex's live performances were halted. Whilst continued to perform and record virtually, she also expanded into teaching and now has a small private teaching studio in South West London. In 2020, alongside her friend and colleague Lyrit Milgram, the two violinists formed "Zeal and Candour" - a violin duo group performing classical duo works as well as creating and performing new arrangements.
Alex performs on a violin made by Francesco Maurizi of Appignano, c.1850.