At the age of eight, Alexander (Alex) Waite had his heart set on being an electronic keyboard player, but was reluctantly convinced to learn the piano by his first teacher. After playing for a year, he quit the instrument, only to regain his passion at the start of high school and he hasn’t looked back since!
Alex is primarily active in contemporary music, as a freelancer and as the pianist of the ELISION ensemble. He is the recipient of the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize Berlin 2024, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on BBC 3, ABC Classic (Australia), SWR, HR, BR and WDR, recorded for Kairos, HCR, Wergo and Lisboa Incomum CD releases, plays with the Ensemble DME (Lisbon) and as regular guest with ensembles around Germany, and has performed in Europe, Asia, the USA, South America and Australia. Festivals include ECLAT, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Klangspuren Schwaz, Music Biennale Zagreb, Shanghai New Music Week, the Metropolis New Music Festival, Melbourne Festival, BIFEM, Extended Play, a performance at the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, and a residency at the Center for 21st Century Music in Buffalo, New York. He has worked with composers including Liza Lim, Michael Maierhof, Luxa Schüttler, Evan Johnson, Peter Ablinger, Turgut Erçetin, Helmut Lachenmann, Orm Finnendahl and Aaron Cassidy, who recently wrote his Piano Concerto for Alex and ELISION.
His mentors include Nicolas Hodges, Timothy Young, Daryl Buckley, Christof Löser, Paul Rickard-Ford and Judy Hall. Alex is currently based in Stuttgart, Germany. He is a lecturer at the HMDK Stuttgart and ESML (Lisbon).
Photo by Oliver Röckle
Alexander Waite 