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Neil Alexander
Pianist , Synthesist, keyboardist & composer Neil Alexander plays music from the heart with astounding passion and fire.
About Me
NYC born NEIL “NAIL” ALEXANDER is an award winning pianist, synthesist and composer. His work
with music manifests in many forms and styles, including jazz, rock, funk, blues, electronica, ambient
and contemporary classical. He is also active in Music Production, Live Sound engineering, Theater,
Modern Dance and Film. Some of his most recent CD releases include “B + A”, a duet record with
vibraphonist Karl Berger, and “The Valley Of Hidden Dreams“, a collection of live and
studio recordings including jazz quartets, tracks by NAIL, duets with Grant Calvin Weston, live-
streamed tracks and ambient electronic music pieces.
A touring musician, Neil has a recording and/or a performance history with a wide variety of groups
and artists such as Rez Abbasi, The Mahavishnu Project, Corey Glover, Tony “Thunder” Smith, Marty
Balin, The Machine, Gunther Hampel, Tal Ross (P-Funk), Charles Haynes, Erik Lawrence, The
Adaptors Movement Theater and many others. He has been composing for Modern Dance since
1982, and has worked with many choreographers and companies, such as Kevin Wynn, Molly
Poerstel, Larry Clark, Lane Gifford, Jonathan Riedel and others. He was a staff musician at the SUNY
Purchase Conservatory of Dance for 28 years, from 1991 until 2019. Neil also maintains a
working classical repertoire including works by Stravinsky, Charles Ives, John Cage, Bela Bartok and
others. In 2015 Neil received the Individual Artist Award from the Orange County Arts Council.
Started in 1999, Neil has continued to promote and manage his own electric jazz ensemble “NAIL”
with whom he has produced 6 CDs, the most recent entitled “The Album That Never Was: Live
Tracks 2023”. In 2009 NAIL received a “mini” grant to perform as part of the Hudson/Champlain
Quadricentennial Celebration. The program included works by Bach, Beethoven, Duke Ellington,
Hank Williams and the Beatles as well as original music. This year NAIL is celebrating their 20th
anniversary with multiple shows around the region.
In 2012 Neil released his 1st solo piano CD “Darn That Dream: Solo Piano Vol. 1″ to critical acclaim,
and from 2012-2013 toured a solo piano concert series titled “100 Years Of Spring“, celebrating the
centennial of Stravinsky’s “Rite Of Spring” with a stunning solo piano arrangement. This was
released in 2017 on “Solo Piano Vol. : Darn That Dream Live in LA″. Various other projects include
an acoustic/electric modern jazz trio, Solo Electronic performances (under the name “Nail Jung”),
“Scene Re-seen” (live electronic scoring of silent films) and the “X Ensemble”, a new contemporary
chamber music group blending modern and traditional forms . Other projects include “Mr. GONE“
and the improvising trio “Supercluster”.
He performs with a variety of local ensembles including the Eric Person Quartet and the Hudson
Valley Jazz Ensemble. Neil also hosts ongoing electronic music meet-ups and teaches Master
Classes in Synthesizer Programming, electronic Music Production and Music Performance
Technology at both the high school and college level. More info about Neil can be found online at
www.nailmusic.com.
