Sounds. Words. People.
Alex Laing is the President and Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival. An accomplished instrumental artist, work he is proud of includes his 22 years as principal clarinet of The Phoenix Symphony. He is passionate and curious about organizational culture, design, and learning. His practice navigates the push and pull between the tradition of a legacy art form and its unfixed future. Alex is a musician who believes that “music is not just sound, it is sounds and words and people.”
Alex’s downloadable bio, click here.
Alex Laing began playing the clarinet in his hometown of Silver Spring, Maryland. In 2001 he joined The Phoenix Symphony as principal clarinet.
In addition to his work with The Phoenix Symphony, recent seasons have found him contributing his sound in a range of other projects including: as a soloist with the Sphinx Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall; with Lawrence Brownlee (in the world premiere of Tyshawn Sorey’s Cycle of My Being); with the Re-Collective Orchestra (in the 2019 soundtrack recording of Disney’s The Lion King) and as a member of Gateways Festival Orchestra.
Alex has been an invited speaker to the annual conferences of both the Association of British Orchestras and the League of American Orchestras where, in 2019 he was a keynote speaker. In addition to his talks and appearances on panels, he sometimes uses the written word to unpack and explore his practice.
Alex is thrilled to be President and Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival. As a teacher he has been a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) program, and a faculty member for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), the League of American Orchestra's 'Essentials of Orchestra Management Seminar' and Juilliard Extension.