ALEX WILSON Pianist, Composer, Arranger, Producer, Educator

As a composer, arranger, performer and educator, Alex Wilson is one of the UK’s foremost latin music producers. He has travelled over fifty countries to perform music in a multitude of projects.

In 1993, after gaining a degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering from the University of York, he embarked on a professional career as a pianist, being snapped up to perform and record with Courtney Pine, Jazz Jamaica, Sandra Cross, Adalberto Santiago and Jocelyn Brown, quickly being signed to the Candid label.

Of his five solo albums, his latest, Inglaterra, has been a worldwide hit on the salsa scene, having received a four star review in The Guardian and voted Best of the 2007 by the salsa community on the US and Italian sites salsaforums and vinilemania.

As a composer and musical director Alex has attracted commissions from NITRO
(Britain’s leading black theatre company), the Royal Opera House, the Royal
Northern College of Music and the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM). He has worked as a record producer for various artists, most recently Gwyn Allen in I Love Louis – A Creole Tribute to Louis Armstrong.

In the commercial world, Alex has had considerable success, most recently penning the theme tune featured on three consecutive TV series of Channel 4’s How to Look Good Naked.

Alex is a committed music educator, having delivered workshops and
masterclasses for young people both internationally, for the British Council in
Colombia, Cuba, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, as well as here in the UK for music colleges, such as the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Alex is Special Lecturer in Music at the University of Nottingham.

In the autumn of 2008, Alex will lead a week’s course for young musicians at Aldeburgh, the conservatoire established by Benjamin Britten. This will be in conjunction with a week’s Artist In Residence he has there to develop his forthcoming Malian music project.

After numerous radio interviews worldwide, Alex is now moving to the other side of the mic, starting as a Radio 2 presenter for a Latin Christmas Special in Dec 06.

He is currently working on his next contemporary salsa album, due out in Sept 08, launching a contemporary soul-reggae project Uplifting Roots with veteran drummer Kenrick Rowe, guesting with Courtney Pine on his Afropean and Sidney Bechet projects, participating in a bhangra-latin project for the SPNM and preparing for his Malian project with master kora player Madou Sidiki Diabate.

Alex was born in the UK and was brought up in Britain, briefly in Sierra Leone followed by Austria and Switzerland and has also studied in the US.