Cosmo Buono first came to prominence as a member of the duo piano team of Bradshaw & Buono.  Specialists in literature written for one piano four hands and two pianos, the artists did much to restore awareness of rare works written by Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Schubert. 
 
After three decades of performances throughout the world, and with a number of major orchestras, the late Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Buono began the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition as a way of creating exposure for young artists, while providing a means for their entrance into the world of professional performance.  Since its beginning in 2003, the Competiton has had more than one hundred winners, chosen from nearly two thousand applicants.
 
A New Jersey native, Mr. Buono completed his studies at New York University, Bard College, and The Juilliard School. As a soloist, he has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, while performing with both the Munich Philharmonic and Danish State Radio Orchestras. His discography includes Grammy-nominated recordings, among them works by Liszt and Schubert with Mr. Bradshaw, as well as CDs featuring the music of Debussy and Rossini.

As a lyric baritone, Barry Alexander has earned a reputation for being as much at home with the coloratura literature of Gluck and Rossini, as the more dramatic works of Puccini and Verdi. He has been hailed by L’Orient-Le Jour as “a singer of great style and feeling,” while Dean Nolan pronounces his performances as being “of the highest type, strong and virile.” Mark Lipson is quoted as saying that “a seemingly impossible combination of talents have made Barry Alexander ‘the Great.’ ”

Mr. Alexander holds degrees from Princeton University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Having made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1991 with works by Gluck and Mozart, he also premiered a new work entitled “I Am Life,” commissioned by the poet and philosopher David Sundaram. That same year he auditioned for the Warsaw Chamber Opera, and became one of only two Americans ever asked to sing with the company.

On returning to the United States, Mr. Alexander became aware of the need for artists to be represented not just by managers, but by publicists who could adequately chronicle the progress of their careers to the media, while also helping them to successfully develop the visibility and awareness crucial to career advancement. He thus began Alexander & Associates, a public relations firm dedicated to carefully guiding the public image of its clients. This led to a collaboration with Cosmo Buono that created a series of enterprises designed to help classical music artists, among them the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition, as well as Alexander & Buono Artists, (www.abartists.com) a management agency for selected winners of The Alexander & Buono Competitions (www.abcompetitions.com).

Mr. Alexander also continues to perform as both a soloist and guest artist, in addition to teaching voice privately. With constant invitations for concerts in throughout the world, he has done much to both rejuvenate and expand interest in the recital format, and to reinforce its intrinsic value as a unique musical and cultural experience for both performers and audiences. He returned to Carnegie Hall recently for “Barry Alexander and Friends,” a recital featuring guest artists in performances of song and operatic works, as well as works for one piano four hands.