Alexander Bonus

A dynamic performer versed in a variety of repertoires, Alexander Bonus has led groups ranging from symphony orchestras to brass ensembles to madrigal consorts—at both the collegiate and professional levels. For over a decade, Dr. Bonus has specialized in directing early-music groups and theatrical productions from the keyboard and has conducted the respective Opera Workshops at Bard College and Vassar College. From 2011 to 2012, Alexander was the faculty Music Director of Duke University’s Collegium Musicum, a combined vocal choir and instrumental ensemble. From 2013 to 2019, Dr. Bonus worked with the Bard Baroque Ensemble as their Founding Director. Alexander Bonus is also a professional musicologist, composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist. As an active researcher and practicing musician, he presents both academic lectures and public performances across Europe and America.

Whether you’re preparing for auditions, learning baroque repertoire, seeking to improve your keyboard skills, or trying to realize basso continuo for the first time, lessons are tailored to meet the needs, challenges, and interests of each student.

You will be offered structured practice plans, repertoire suggestions, and real-world listening exercises to strengthen your ears, creative ideas, and your expression as a basso continuo player.

During lessons, students will learn how to: 

• Accompany with confidence: Fusing harmony, counterpoint, technique, and interpretation

• Invent music spontaneously: Playing beyond the figured bass numbers or realizations

• Improvise stylistically from the keyboard: Craft expressive ideas from unrealized notation

• Understand music theory while performing: Not by memorizing, but through practical hands-on experience