WTh 1:00-2:00
Alexander Walsh-Wilson, aka Sandy Wilson is the cellist and founding member of the Alexander String Quartet, which serves as Ensemble in Residence at the School of Music and Dance at San Francisco State University. The Quartet directs the University’s Morrison Chamber Music Center Instructional Program. The Alexander is also Quartet in Residence of San Francisco Performances with which organization it serves as anchor for its extensive and nationally renowned community outreach and educational activities. As a member of the Quartet, Sandy has recorded more than 20 discs over a quarter century. In addition to performing mainstream literature and collaborative projects with many distinguished artists on four continents, the Quartet has recorded dozens of contemporary works and many commissions, including the work of several faculty colleagues at San Francisco State University. The Quartet has been honored by commissions from the Gerbode Foundation, The Koussevitzky foundation, Chamber Music America, the C. Michael Paul Foundation, Stanford University and many more. Among the Quartet’s critically acclaimed recordings are included an internationally best-selling 9-CD set of the Beethoven String Quartet Cycle for BMG’s Munich-based Arte Nova Classics label as well as comprehensive and much celebrated surveys of the Mozart “Haydn” Quartets, the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s fifteen string quartets and works of Wayne Peterson, to name a few.
Sandy Wilson was appointed principal cellist of the Symphony and Opera Orchestra of Lucerne, Switzerland, at the age of 21 and served in that capacity until he came to the United States in 1979. Born in Northumberland, England, Mr. Wilson graduated from the Royal College of Music in London in 1973 and from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 1974. He graduated from the Solist-Klasse, completing his post-graduate studies in cello and composition at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen in 1977 before graduating from the Yale University School of Music in 1981.
In addition to his extensive international touring/performing schedule with the Alexander String Quartet, Sandy Wilson and his colleagues teach regularly at New York City’s premiere business school, Baruch College, at St. Lawrence University, and at Allegheny College. These two institutions recently granted Honorary Doctorates in Fine Arts to the Quartet members for their services to the Arts in Education and in June 2006, Presidential Medals from the City University of New York City’s Baruch College in honor of 20 years as Ensemble in Residence.
Sandy teaches cello and chamber music both at home and abroad. He has a multi-national class of undergraduate and graduate students at SFSU as well as a select class of gifted private students. He is an active member of the M.T.A.C. and has recently completed serving his second term as an elected board member of the national service organization, Chamber Music America.
Education and Experience
- Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Allegheny College
- M.M. (Performance), Yale University
- Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (Soloist Class Debut)
- A.R.C.M. (Teaching), London
- D.R.S.A.M. (Teaching and Performance) Glasgow
