A BBC Music Magazine Rising Star in 2021, pianist Alexander Soares has garnered a reputation as an authoritative soloist, sensitive collaborator, and dynamic recording artist. In recital, he has been praised for his performances that are “brilliantly unbuttoned” (The Sunday Times) with playing of “huge intensity” (The Telegraph) and “diamond clarity and authority” (BBC Radio 3). He came to international attention in 2015, performing the solo and chamber music of Pierre Boulez in a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast at the Barbican Centre; in the same year he also won the Gold Medal in the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition and was selected as a solo artist by City Music Foundation. Alexander has since performed in major venues and festivals across the UK, Europe and USA, with regular radio broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, FranceMusique, WDR, SWR2 and RTP.

Alexander is quickly gaining a reputation as a leading exponent of contemporary French repertoire. In 2019 he signed with Rubicon Classics to release his debut solo album Notations & Sketches. Praised for its captivating programme — the piano solo works of Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen — the disc was selected as ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine (May 2019) and received widespread critical acclaim as “a stunning album” (FranceMusique) with playing of “style and sophistication” (BBC Music Magazine), and “virtuosity and exploratory curiosity” (International Piano Magazine). In 2021, following the release of his second solo CD – Threnodies – Alexander was noted as “a thoughtful programmer” (BBC Music Magazine), with Gramophone affirming his dynamic performance: “Soares is in his element again, conveying the immensity of the emotional journey”.

He has also recorded for KAIROS, featuring on the album NowState (June 2020) by the talented Portuguese composer Gonçalo Gato. During the 2020 lockdown, he collaborated with mezzo soprano Helen Charlston and baritone Michael Craddock to give the world première of The Isolation Songbook: 15 new songs by British composers, livestreamed from the iconic St Pancras Clocktower. A CD of the project was recorded in Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, released by Delphian Records in March 2021. It was selected as Editor’s Choice by Presto Music, and praised as a “lovely, accomplished miscellany of composers, poets and moods” (The Guardian) creating “a recital that's hard to resist, at once fresh and profoundly familiar” (Gramophone Magazine).

Current and recent highlights include solo performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, St John’s, Smith Square, and the Barbican. He has collaborated with conductors Diego Masson, David Corkhill, and Pierre-André Valade, and is a committed chamber musician, performing with musicians including Mihaela Martin, Alexander Baillie, Boris Brovtsyn and Emily Sun. A keen proponent of contemporary music, Alexander has given numerous premieres, and worked with Tristan Murail, Hugh Wood and Martin Butler. In 2022 he will collaborate with Gonçalo Gato on the LSO Soundhub Scheme to develop a new set of Études.

Alexander graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, with First Class Honours. He subsequently gained a Master’s (Distinction) and a Doctorate at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he studied with Richard Goode, Stephen Kovacevich, Steven Osborne, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and his mentor Ronan O’Hora. Educational outreach is an increasingly important aspect of his career; in 2018, he launched an educational The Notations Project with support from YCAT, working with young composers. He combines a busy and varied performing schedule with doctoral supervision at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and as a Piano Tutor at Royal Holloway University. www.alexander-soares.com