Alexandre da Costa

Having devoted many years to the violin and piano, Alexandre Da Costa now serves as music director and chief conductor of the Longueuil Symphony Orchestra. Born in Montreal in 1979, he began childhood instruction on both instruments and demonstrated prodigious ability by appearing in public recitals on violin and piano at age nine. Charles Dutoit urged him to pursue advanced training. He completed a bachelor’s degree in piano at the University of Montreal and earned a master’s degree in violin at the Quebec Conservatory, where he captured the institution’s first prize. Shortly afterward he launched an international career, performing on both instruments throughout Europe and issuing his first recording on the Amberola label in 1998. While continuing his education he ultimately concentrated on a single instrument, enrolling at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid to work with Zakhar Bron. In 2002 he released the album Hendrix, McCartney & Ysaÿe on Disques XXI, an association that began after his participation in the 1999 Sarasate International Competition; although he still played both instruments on the disc, the violin gradually assumed greater prominence. During the 2000s he pursued additional studies at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, took conducting lessons in Austria and Germany with Christian Schulz and Josep Caballé-Domenech, and undertook musicological research. For several years he maintained residences in both Canada and Europe. Further recordings for Disques XXI earned him a Juno Award nomination for concertos by Luis Freitas Branco and Joly Braga Santos. In 2009 he established the Ensemble Camerata Orford in Quebec. As a violinist he has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Musikverein in Vienna, and Beijing’s Poly Theater. He has taught at the Gatineau Conservatory in Quebec, Edith Cowan University in Australia, and the DeTao Group academy in Shanghai. Guest appearances as both violinist and conductor have taken him across Europe and North America, culminating in his 2018 appointment as music director of the Longueuil Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he has recorded the complete Brahms sonatas with pianist Wonny Song. Roughly twenty-five albums document his work; the 2012 release of Michael Daugherty compositions with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Pedro Halffter received Canada’s Juno Award and appeared on Warner Classics, the label that subsequently issued several additional projects. He later joined Sony Classical, which released the 2017 album Tchaikovsky and the 2022 recording Stradivarius Je me souviens.