BARRY ALEXANDER, Executive Director

Barry Alexander is the President and CEO of Alexander & Associates, a public relations firm he launched after a twenty-year career as an opera singer. With a roster of clients that includes major artistic foundations and corporations worldwide, he continues to use his experience as a classical musician to not only guide the careers of a number of classical artists and musical institutions, but to teach voice as well.

As a lyric baritone, Mr. Alexander earned a reputation for being as much at home with the coloratura literature of Gluck and Rossini, as the more dramatic works of Puccini and Verdi. He has been hailed by L’Orient-Le Jour as “a singer of great style and feeling,” while Dean Nolan pronounces his performances as being “of the highest type, strong and virile,” and Mark Lipson is quoted as saying that “a seemingly impossible combination of talents have made Barry Alexander ‘the Great.’ ”

Mr. Alexander holds degrees from Princeton and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. He has been a principal soloist with the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Warsaw Chamber Opera, and continues to perform as a recitalist.

COSMO BUONO, Executive Director

Cosmo Buono first came to prominence as a member of the duo piano team of Bradshaw & Buono. Specialists in literature written for one piano four hands and two pianos, the artists did much to restore awareness of rare works written by Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Schubert.

After three decades of performances throughout the world, and with a number of major orchestras, the late Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Buono began the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition as a way of creating exposure for young artists, while providing a means for their entrance into the world of professional performance. Since its beginning in 2003, the Competition has had more than fifty winners, chosen from thousands of applicants.

A New Jersey native, Mr. Buono completed his studies at New York University, Bard College, and The Juilliard School. As a soloist, he has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, while performing with both the Munich Philharmonic and Danish State Radio Orchestras. His discography includes Grammy-nominated recordings of works by Liszt and Schubert with Mr. Bradshaw, as well as CDs featuring the music of Debussy and Rossini.