Music Director

Peter Alexander has performed with and conducted a wide variety of ensembles in Sydney for over forty years.

He has sung with Sydney Chamber Choir, Opera Australia, The Song Company, The Leonine Consort and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

He studied conducting with Louis Fremaux and Sir Charles Mackerras.

His repertoire includes Handel: The Messiah, symphonies of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, Berlioz’ Sinfonie Fantastique, Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 5 & 10, Verdi’s Rigoletto, La Traviata and Otello and the Mozart’s Requiem and The Magic Flute. In 2016 he prepared his own edition of, and then conducted, John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.

As Music Librarian for Opera Australia since 1982, Peter has prepared orchestra and vocal scores for hundreds of operas and has worked closely with conductors such as Richard Bonynge, Simone Young, Christopher Hogwood, Richard Gill, Guillaume Tourniaire, Carlo Felice Cillario and Pietari Inkinen and collaborated with directors Neil Armfield, Barrie Kosky, John Bell, Baz Luhrmann and Graeme Murphy.

His scenic soundscape for the new Norwegian play Virus – a Fugue based on Bach’s fugue in G minor was lauded by the playwright, critics and audiences. His arrangements of Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienna and Bach’s Coffee Cantata for a chamber ensemble received standing ovations from the audiences. The seasoned players – most of whom had been out of work because of COVID – loved playing these unfamiliar pieces from the classical Masters.

His recent arrangements and musical direction of Grieg’s incidental music for Peer Gynt wowed audiences and made 30 Sydney musicians very happy.

In late 2023 Peter collaborated again with Christine Logan on the performance of four 20th Century short operas entitled It's So Last Century. It contained four one-act operas by Foss, Barber, Menotti and Orff, which delighted both audiences and critics.

In 2025 Peter is the Music Director of the Bernstein & Busoni double bill at the Eternity Playhouse. It contains two one-act operas - 'Trouble in Tahiti' by Leonard Bernstein and 'Arlecchino' by Ferruccio Busoni and features opera legends Cheryl Barker and Peter Colman-Wright.