Alexander Frey

Alexander Frey, KM, KStJ, Cav.GdP, is an American symphony orchestra conductor, virtuoso organist, pianist, harpsichordist and composer. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and enjoys success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Hollywood and Broadway. His ongoing project is recording the complete piano works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Koch International Classics). Frey's recordings are on the Koch International Classics (Entertainment One), Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, RCA Red Seal and Bach Guild labels.

Contemporary music and the music of Hollywood

Frey has maintained a strong commitment to both contemporary music and the film music of Hollywood which has been evident in the many world and regional premieres he is given. At the 2009 "Hollywood in Vienna Festival" held in Vienna, Austria, Frey gave the first public live performance of John Williams' music to Jean-Jacques Annaud's film Seven Years in Tibet when he played a piano transcription of the complete score to that movie. He also performed the world premieres of Max Steiner's Wiener Lob and a large-scale piano transcription of David Arnold's music for the film Independence Day in concert with Arnold in attendance. In Mexico, Frey conducted the Latin American premiere performances of both Bernard Herrmann's music for Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo and Franz Waxman's music for the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He also gave the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music for the 1944 film Between Two Worlds, as well as the European premiere of the Suite from Schindler's List, composed and arranged by John Williams. In Barrie Gavin's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, composed in Hollywood at the end of the composers life and exists only in piano score, in addition to playing several solo keyboard works and most of the background piano music. The film won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in the first year of the DVD category of the award. This highly acclaimed documentary documentary and its performers also received the Edison Klassiek Prize and many other awards.

He has conducted James Helme Sutcliffe's Gymnopedie and Night Music (both world premieres), Charles Kalman's Hudson Concerto, Naji Hakim's Hymne de l'Univers (North American premiere) and Ada Gentile's Adagio and Adagio Prima, Adagio Seconda. As pianist, Frey has given the world premieres of Leonard Bernstein's Five Anniversaries and Thirteen Anniversaries, and Valse Gaea as well as the European and Asian premieres of Bernstein's Touches and Sonata for the Piano. He gave the world premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Vier Walzer (Four Waltzes), Kurt Weill's Albumblatt (the composer's only work for solo piano) and Franz Schubert's then-unpublished Fugue in D minor for organ.

Frey was Musical Advisor to the Hollywood in Vienna Festival from 2007 to 2013.

Radio biography In 1997, an hour-long radio program about Frey's life and work, hosted by Studs Terkel, was broadcast on The Studs Terkel Program,