Alejandro Drago is a violinist, conductor, composer, and educator. Hailed by music critics as “a superb musician” with the “classical virtuosity of a Heifetz or Perlman,” his discography includes string quartets, concertos, and avant-garde tangos distributed internationally by EMI International label and Naxos Music Library Japan.
Alejandro received a scholarship from the Russian government to study at the Moscow State Conservatory, where he obtained his Master of Fine Arts in Violin Performance and Pedagogy. In 2008, he received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Southern Mississippi.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Alejandro has performed in world-class concert halls and toured extensively in Russia, the United States, Canada, China, Austria, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Switzerland, Lithuania, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Belarus, Italy, France, Brazil, Spain, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Haiti.
In his conducting career, from 2005 to 2008, Alejandro was the Assistant Conductor of the Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Southern Mississippi Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest conductor with professional and youth orchestras in the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Romania. Presently, he is the Music Director of the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra (GGFSO).
Alejandro’s symphonic and chamber arrangements of Argentine music have been performed extensively in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Highlights of recent seasons include multiple performances of his own Violin Concerto in the USA, Brazil, Belarus, and the Republic of Moldova. His works are published by Filarmonika.com (Fort Worth, TX) and Eurindia Edizioni (Switzerland).
He conducts masterclasses, seminars, lectures, and lecture-recitals extensively in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Alejandro teaches and performs regularly in festivals in Latin America, the US, and Europe. Also in demand as an adjudicator, he has been a member of the jury in junior and senior international competitions in Russia, Europe, China, and the US.
In July 2008, Alejandro joined the faculty at the University of North Dakota (UND) Department of Music as the Professor of Violin and Viola and Director of the UND Chamber Orchestra.
Alejandro’s awards include a special prize in the Rodolfo Lipizer International Competition (Italy, 1992), third prize in the Petar Konjovich International Young Musicians Competition (Yugoslavia, 1993), and the first prize in the “New Talents in Classical Music” Competition (Buenos Aires, 1997).