ALEXANDER BONUS

CORNETTO

Guest artist, October 26-27, 2019

Alexander Bonus maintains a varied career as multi-instrumentalist, composer, conductor, educator, and researcher. He holds two degrees from the Eastman School of Music and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University. His scholarship on historical performance practices appears in sources including Oxford Handbooks Online, the new Cambridge Encyclopedia of Historical Performance in Music and the revised Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. As an early-brass specialist, Alexander has performed with Tafelmusik, Chicago Opera Theater, Folger Consort, Tragicomedia, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco Bach Chorale, Musica Angelica, and Apollo’s Fire, et al. His natural-trumpet playing is heard on the Boston Early Music Festival’s Grammy-nominated recording of Psyché by J. B. Lully. Alexander is also an avid keyboard improviser and has played harpsichord and organ continuo with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Bard Festival Chorale, and The Orchestra Now. As an early music ensemble director, Alexander founded the Bard Baroque Ensemble and led the Duke University Collegium Musicum from the keyboard. He currently serves as a professor in the Music Department at Vassar College.