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 has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on BBC 3, ABC Classic, the MBS network and WDR, recorded for Kairos, is one half of Duo Krasis together with Delia Ramos Rodríguez, plays regularly with the Ensemble DME (Lisbon) and as regular guest with ensembles around Germany, and has performed in Europe, Asia, the USA and Australia. Festivals include 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, Martin Schüttler, Evan Johnson, Peter Ablinger, Turgut Erçetin, Isabel Mundry, and Aaron Cassidy, who recently wrote his Piano Concerto for Alex and ELISION.
Alex completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with First Class Honours at the Sydney Conservatorium. In 2016, he relocated to Melbourne to study with Timothy Young at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), where he completed three years of the Professional Performance Program. Alex also holds a Master of Music degree (New Music Piano) from the HMDK Stuttgart, which he completed with Nicolas Hodges with the highest mark. Aside from Timothy and Nicolas, mentors include Dr Paul Rickard-Ford and Judy Hall OAM.
Alex is currently based in Stuttgart, Germany, where he is being mentored by Nicolas Hodges and is on staff at the HMDK. In the summer semester of 2023, Alex will also be visiting faculty at the ESML, Lisbon.
Photo by Oliver Röckle
Alexander Waite 