Alex Wilson
@ the Pizza Express Jazz Club
1 July 2009

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Biography

Alex Wilson 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.

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.

As a composer and musical director Wilson 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, Wilson 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.

Wilson is a committed music educator, having delivered workshops and master classes 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. Wilson is Special Lecturer in Music at the University of Nottingham.