Hailed as a "born communicator" (The Australian), a "brilliant young musician" (Otago Times), and a “soloist of superb virtuosic skill and musicality” (Limelight), Brisbane-based pianist and curator Alex Raineri (b. 1993) is active Internationally and throughout Australia as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, harpsichordist, writer, producer and educator.
International performances include tours throughout America, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Southeast Asia and New Zealand. Within Australia, Alex has been a featured artist in many major festivals and venues. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Darwin and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, Ensemble Q, Southern Cross Soloists, Four Winds Festival Orchestra, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Queensland Youth Symphony and the Queensland Pops Orchestra. He has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio NZ, California Capital Public Radio, ABC Classic FM and all of the Australian MBS Networks.
Alex is the Artistic Director of the annual Brisbane Music Festival. Praised for its "diverse programming" (Limelight), the BMF celebrates its sixth year of operations in 2023, embracing eclectic and diverse approaches to programming - a cross-cultivation of offerings from the old and familiar to the exploratory and new. Within his role at Brisbane Music Festival, he embodies many creative and managerial positions including artistic director, producer, marketing + social media manager, grant writing and philanthropy, and coordination and delivery of an impactful young artist mentorship program.
He is a passionate exponent and commissioner of contemporary music, having given 127 World Premieres + 163 Australian Premieres to date. Alex's particular interest in contemporary art music has resulted in collaborative partnerships with many Australian and international composers, culminating in the commissioning and premiere of many new works which to date includes over 70 commissions. Australian premieres have included works by the major compositional figures of 20th and 21st Century composition; Messiaen, Lachenmann, Feldman/Beckett, Reich, Cage, Luther-Adams, Birtwistle, Furrer, Kurtag, Saunders, Fure, Henze, Murail, Hurel + Aperghis. Alex has worked with and/or commissioned works from many of Australia's leading composers including Brett Dean, Liza Lim, Chris Dench, Elliott Gyger, Deborah Cheetham, James Ledger, Kate Moore, Lachlan Skipworth, Gerard Brophy, Paul Dean, and many others.
Discography includes How Strange the Change, I'll Walk Beside You (ABC Classics), Liquid Crystal, trying to remember what I chose to forget (MOVE Records), Transfiguration, Inventions, braneworlds (Independent).
Significant appearances in Australian festivals and major concert series include; Brisbane Music Festival, Australian Digital Concert Hall, Utzon Music Series, Musica Viva International Concert Series, Melbourne Recital Centre, Ukaria, Sydney Festival, Brisbane Festival, Bangalow Music Festival, Bendigo Festival of Exploratory Music, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Four Winds Festival, Ten Days on the Island, Canberra International Music Festival, Queensland Music Festival, QPAC Unlocked Series, Medici Series, Music by the Sea Festival, Castlemaine Festival, Recitals Australia, Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, Bleach Festival, 3MBS Marathons, Australian Piano Duo Festival, Brisbane Baroque Festival, QSOCurrent, Canberra Symphony Orchestra Recital Series, Queensland Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, 4MBS Festival of Classics, Contra Concerts, Nova Muse Festival, HOTA and Crossbows Festival. International festival/series appearances include; International Summer Courses for New Music, Unerhörte Musik, University of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ (Germany), IMPULS Academy (Austria), Hugh Lane Gallery (Ireland), University of Sheffield, University of Huddersfield (UK), Aroha Music Series, University of Waikato, University of Otago (NZ).
Ongoing collaborative partnerships include; Alexandra Flood, Jessica Aszodi, Katie Stenzel, Jenna Robertson, Tabatha McFadyen, Bethany Shepherd, Laura Raineri (voice), Lina Andonovska, Jonathan Henderson (flute), Luke Carbon (clarinet), Courtenay Cleary, Brendan Joyce (violin), Trish Dean, Oliver Scott, David Freisberg (cello), Angus Wilson (percussion), Laurence Matheson (piano) and Katina Olsen (dancer/choreographer). Alex was a core member of Southern Cross Soloists (2015-21) and was a founding member + pianist of Kupka's Piano (2012-18).
Collaborations with Internationally acclaimed artists include; Andreas Ottensamer, Twoset Violin, eighth blackbird, ELISION, Asko|Schönberg, Lior, Sara Macliver, Mirusia, Natalie Clein, Natsuko Yoshimoto, Karin Schaupp, Greta Bradman, Amy Lehpamer, Claire Edwardes, Li Wei Qin, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Warwick Fyfe, Jack Liebeck, Kathryn Stott, Slava Grigoryan, Brett Dean, William Barton, Jane Sheldon, Lisa Moore, Ensemble Offspring, Orava Quartet, Camerata, Paul Tabone, Topology, ensemble interface, Miroslav Petkov, Wilma Smith, James Crabb, Andrew Goodwin, Eva Kong, Amalia Hall, Ensemble Nikel, Speak Percussion, Kroumata Percussion, Arcadia Quintet, Irena Lysiuk, Michael Houston, Andrew Pelletier, Richard Haynes, Carl Rosman, Bethany Simons, and many others.
Major awards include winning the Kerikeri International Piano Competition and Australian National Piano Award. He was the recipient of the Queensland Luminary Award in the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards and received a Kranichsteiner Musikpries at the International Summer Courses for New Music (Darmstadt, Germany). Alex has been a prizewinner and/or finalist in; Sydney International Piano Competition, Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Mietta Song Competition, ANAM Concerto Competition (winner), ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer Awards and the Freedman Classical Music Fellowship.
Additionally to his full-time performance calendar, Alex is a radio-presenter on 4MBS Classic FM and holds associate artist positions at both the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University and University of Queensland. As a writer, his work has been disseminated by various publications and forums including The Music Trust’s Loudmouth, Limelight, Australian Music Centre's Resonate, Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference + extensive program notes for Brisbane Music Festival, Southern Cross Soloists + Opera Queensland.
An artist of extreme versatility, the focal point of Alex's professional practice is within the realms of Western Art Music though often extends to jazz, musical theatre, pop, rock, and folk genres. Alex has curated or partaken in many innovative cross-genre and multi-artform projects traversing theatre, film, contemporary dance, ballet, visual art, contemporary performance art and fashion. This includes collaborations with Australasian Dance Collective, Brisbane Writers Festival, Kaldor Public Arts Projects, Queensland Theatre, Makeshift Dance Collective, Victorian Theatre Company, Paul Kildea, Peter Bassett (writers), Helen Morse, Damien Beaumont, Jason Klarwein, Matthew Connell, Helen Howard, Michael Futcher (actors), Jak Scanlon (filmmaker), Joel Dunkley (designer) and Eljo Agenbach (visual artist).
As a repetiteur Alex has worked on productions of Tosca (Puccini), Macbeth (Verdi), A Flowering Tree (Adams), La voix humaine (Poulenc) and The Call (D’Netto) for Opera Queensland, and Puccini's Il Trittico for the Cuskelly Summer School.
Alex's mentors include; Timothy Young, Leah Horwitz OAM, Stephen Emmerson, Huguette Brassine and Genevieve Lacey. Alex completed undergraduate studies with Class I Honours and a University Medal and is both an alumni and fellow of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). He also holds a Licentiate Diploma from the Australian Music Examinations Board and a Licentiate Diploma with Distinction from Trinity College London.
