Alexander Frey

Alexander Frey is an American symphony orchestra conductor. He is also known as a virtuoso organist, pianist and harpsichordist. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and enjoys great success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Broadway and Hollywood.

In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute, as is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with performances of great depth.

In January 2008, during an interview broadcast on Radio Cairo while conducting in Egypt, Frey stated that "Music is a peaceful island in a river of sadness.

In an interview celebrating his 95th birthday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Studs Terkel discussed his "diverse and idiosyncratic taste in music, from Bob Dylan to Alexander Frey, Louis Armstrong to Woodie Guthrie".

In recent years, he has taken to playing his solo recitals with a lamp next to or on the piano providing the only stage light (and often the only lighting in the concert hall as well), and an oriental rug underneath the instrument to "create an intimacy between my audience and the music, as if everyone were in my living room listening together".

A resident of Berlin, Germany, Frey has been frequently invited by the city's diplomatic community to perform for heads of state including President Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama, and former German chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder, among others.

A witty and urbane figure, Frey is a prominent member of Berlin's intellectual community and has been called "a raconteur, a young Oscar Levant" by American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, "his generation's Noël Coward", "everybody's favorite dinner guest" and that "he seems like a classic character from the golden age of the Broadway musical".

Frey is an official Steinway Artist.

He is Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria.

Frey is of Greek-American and German-American descent.