Levi Alexander
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Levi Alexander is a South African conductor, music educator, choral director and classical saxophonist. He has served as Director and Conductor of the Symphony Choir of Cape Town since 2021 and is Head of Music at South African College High School (SACS) in Cape Town. He is also a saxophone lecturer at the University of Cape Town's South African College of Music. His career spans formal classical performance, music education, Anglican church music, wind bands, choral-orchestral repertoire and the Western Cape Christmas Bands tradition.[1]
Early life and education
[edit ]Alexander attended The Settlers High School from 2005 to 2009.[2]
He began formal saxophone studies at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in 2007 while still a school pupil and studied under woodwind educator Arisa Voges.[3]
Alexander has identified Mozart's Great Mass in C minor as one of the formative influences of his musical life. In programme notes for the Symphony Choir of Cape Town's June 2026 performance of the work, he also recalled receiving a Mozart biography and accompanying recordings from his grandmother during childhood and described listening to the work as his earliest memory of choral and orchestral music.[4]
He studied baritone saxophone performance and conducting at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town.[5] During his student years he was active in orchestral, wind band, choral and church music ensembles, including the South African National Youth Orchestra, the St George's Cathedral Evensong Choir and the Symphony Choir of Cape Town.[1] [5]
Alexander obtained a Licentiate Diploma in Saxophone Performance from Trinity College London in 2014.[2] He later completed a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at Stellenbosch University, graduating cum laude.[1] [5] His master's thesis, The Plight of Anglican Church Music in the Western Cape: Three Case Studies, examined challenges facing Anglican church music in the province.[6] He also completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Rhodes University, specialising in high school Creative Arts and Music Education.[1] [5]
Career
[edit ]Performance and conducting
[edit ]Alexander's principal instrument is the saxophone. He has performed as an ad hoc saxophonist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and as a multi-woodwind instrumentalist in musical theatre productions at Artscape, Cape Town.[1] [5] He has also performed as a vocalist with ensembles including True Voices, Cape Consort, Lutesong Consort, the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra and the Choir of St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Observatory, Cape Town.[1]
His early conducting and church music appointments included work for the Diocese of Saldanha Bay and as Interregnum Music Assistant at St George's Cathedral and St George's Grammar School in 2013.[5] His involvement in Anglican church music later informed his master's research at Stellenbosch University.[6]
Alexander has worked extensively with wind ensembles. He was student assistant conductor of the UCT Symphonic Wind Band and Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2014, assistant conductor of the Beau Soleil Senior Wind Band, and resident conductor of the University of the Western Cape Symphonic Wind Orchestra from 2014 to 2017.[5] He has appeared as guest conductor of the South African National Youth Orchestra String Ensemble, the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Zimbabwe, the WindWorx Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town and the University of Cape Town Wind Ensemble.[5]
Symphony Choir of Cape Town
[edit ]Alexander served as assistant conductor of the Symphony Choir of Cape Town from 2015 to 2021 and was appointed Director and Conductor in 2021.[5] Under his leadership the choir has continued to present large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire, including works by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Carl Orff.[1]
In June 2026 he conducted the choir in a performance of Shane Woodborne's completion and reconstruction of Mozart's unfinished Mass in C minor, K.427 at Cape Town City Hall.[4]
Music educator
[edit ]Alexander's teaching career began with the Cape Philharmonic Youth Music Academy.[5] He also taught at the Beau Soleil Music Centre, where he served as an educator and assistant conductor of the senior wind band until the end of 2015.[5]
He joined SACS High School in January 2015 and was appointed Departmental Head of Music in 2021.[5] At SACS he has directed the concert band and marching band programmes. The SACS Concert Band participated in the Mid Europe Wind Band Festival in Schladming, Austria, in 2017.[5]
Alexander has lectured in saxophone at the University of Cape Town's South African College of Music and has taught conducting and choral training in music education programmes.[1] [5] He has also served as an adjudicator for music competitions and festivals, including the SACS Junior School Edward's Cup Instrumental Music Competition, Cape Winelands Christmas Bands Union competitions, the Kaapse Afrikaanse Eisteddfod and Diocesan College music events.[5]
Christmas Bands movement
[edit ]The Christmas Bands movement is a Western Cape community music tradition consisting of voluntary wind bands, often spanning several generations, that perform Christian hymns, carols and light classical music in parades and house visits during the festive season.[7] [8] It forms part of a wider Cape festive performance culture that includes Kaapse Klopse, Malay choirs and other New Year and Christmas-season musical practices.[9]
Alexander has played a prominent role over a period of nearly twenty years in this tradition. The Symphony Choir of Cape Town describes the Royal Crusaders Christmas Band as a community marching band based in Bellville and states that Alexander has conducted and directed the band since 2006.[5] A South African National Youth Orchestra profile similarly described him as active in community music and as conductor and director of the Royal Crusaders Christmas Band in Bellville.[10]
Ethnomusicologist Sylvia Bruinders referred to Alexander in her study of the Christmas Bands movement, noting that she observed him in 2013 as bandmaster of the Royal Crusaders while he was in his final year of the Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Cape Town.[7]
Between 2010 and 2013 he served as Director of Music of the Peninsula and District Christmas Bands Union.[5]
Honours and awards
[edit ]In the 2010 National Youth Music Competition, Alexander was runner-up in the Wind Instrument category, received a bronze medal, and won the award for Best Performance of a South African Work.[11]
References
[edit ]- ^ a b c d e f g h The Great Mass: Mozart's Mass in C Minor, K.427/417 and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K.339 (Concert programme). Cape Town: Symphony Choir of Cape Town. 7 June 2026. p. 14.
- ^ a b "Levi Alexander". LinkedIn. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ Mass in Modern Times (Concert programme). Cape Town: Symphony Choir of Cape Town. 2024.
- ^ a b Alexander, Levi (7 June 2026). "Director's note". The Great Mass: Mozart's Mass in C Minor, K.427/417 and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K.339 (Concert programme). Cape Town: Symphony Choir of Cape Town. p. 2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Music Director - Levi Alexander". Symphony Choir of Cape Town. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ a b Alexander, Levi (2021). The Plight of Anglican Church Music in the Western Cape: Three Case Studies (MMus thesis). Stellenbosch University. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ a b Bruinders, Sylvia (2017). Parading Respectability: The cultural and moral aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa (PDF). NISC. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-920033-19-4 . Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ "The Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa". University of Leeds. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ "'Klopse' alive and kicking against authority". Mail & Guardian. 14 January 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ "National Youth Orchestra concert to set the stage on fire". Sasol. 6 December 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
- ^ "Artscape announces National Youth Music Competition winners". Media Update. 11 October 2010. Retrieved 7 June 2026.
External links
[edit ]- Levi Alexander biography at the Symphony Choir of Cape Town
- Levi Alexander on LinkedIn