Teaching Activities
Music for children
MusicWorks!
MusicWorks! is an intensive artistic and social program inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, offered after school in the city of Asheville, North Carolina, to children in underserved populations that uses music education as a transformative and empowering tool to teach life skills. Alexander gave a workshop and demonstration of the piano through a performance of several Steinbach “Figures,” an interactive performance of Mozart’s “Twinkle Variations” and Piano Concerto No.9 with members from the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. Alexander believes that children learn best when they engage all of their senses, and he invited them to the piano to see the hammers, feel the vibrations and listen to the tones close up. The kids loved it!
Coop Family Center
Alexander collaborates with teachers and staff at the Coop Family Center in Eugene, Oregon, to incorporate music exploration into the classrooms. Through constructing musical instruments, experimenting with materials and different devices, textures and sounds, he has watched the children develop greater sensitivity and awareness of their surroundings and delight in making music and inspired art.
University of New Mexico
Visiting Artist Faculty (Fall Semester 2013)
Faculty Artist Lecture Recital and New Mexico Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art on Steinbach “Figures: 17 Choreographic Etudes for Piano” (2006)
Outreach Activities in Albuquerque Public Schools with Dr. David Schepps
Internationales Klavierfestival-Lindlar
Faculty Teaching Assistant; workshops in piano literature; Lecture Recital on works from Chopin (2010)
Guest Artist Lecture Recital and Workshop on piano literature and piano technique for beginning, intermediate and advanced pianists (2012)
Faculty Teaching Assistant; Workshop titled: “Music Perception: Translating Visual Contours of Melodic Lines into Physical Movements in Piano Technique;” Lecture Recital on Steinbach “Figures” and Germany Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art (2014)
Xcellent Music at AMoCA
Workshop “Musikanten: Ones Who Make Figures” at Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art in Roswell, New Mexico, funded by Anderson Artist-In-Residence Grant
Western Regional Piano Conference and Competition
Competition Jury member
Masterclasses and individual lessons
Conference Lecture: “Memorization through Visualization”
Lecture Recital: Colorado Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art and Steinbach “Figures”
Oregon Music Teacher’s Association
Competition Jury member
Adjudicator for Portland Classical Festival
Adjudicator for Eugene Sonata and Sonatina Festival
Guest Lecture: “Steinbach’s Pedagogy and the Choreographic Etudes” (2010)
Guest Lecture: “Music Perception: Translating Visual Contours of Melodic Lines into Physical Movements in Piano Technique” (Oregon Debut of Schwarzkopf visual art) (2014)
MusicWorks!
Workshop and demonstration of the piano for an El Sistema-based initiative by the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in cooperation with Hall-Fletcher Elementary School
Interactive concert-collaboration with children on Mozart’s “Twinkle Variations”
ARTCORE
Masterclasses for advanced pianists in Casper, Wyoming
University of Oregon
Graduate Teaching Fellow in Pedagogy and Collaborative Piano
University of New Mexico
Teaching Assistant in Piano and Jazz Studies
University of Wyoming
Assistant in Piano Area at Summer Music Camp
Private Studio
Private Studio since 1997 for students varying in age from young students to adult beginners.Some students from my studio have auditioned successfully into college music programs for piano and composition.