Alexander studied in Sydney and Munich and won 1st prize at the International Competition for Conductors in the Czech Republic in 1993. He later worked closely with Sir Charles Mackerras and Pierre Boulez and made his debut with Opera Australia in 1998 conducting Jenůfa. Operatic work has since included Madama Butterfly, Cosi fan tutte, Cunning Little Vixen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Australia), The Rape of Lucretia (ROH, Covent Garden), Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne Festival), Rigoletto and Makropulos Case (English National Opera), Cunning Little Vixen (Aix-en-Provence), From the House of the Dead (Canadian Opera Company), Tales of Hoffmann (Royal Danish Opera), Bartered Bride (Royal Swedish Opera), Pique Dame (Komische Oper, Berlin), La Bohème (State Opera of South Australia), Bartók ballets (Opera du Rhin) as well as the premiere of Simon Holt’s Who put Bella in the Wych’elm for the Aldeburgh Festival.

He has performed regularly with the Philharmonia, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, opening their 2003 ‘Friday Series’ in London and touring with them to China in 2003/4; and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with whom he made his BBC Proms and Berlin Festival debuts.

He has also worked with the Orchestre de Paris for the opening of the 2004 ‘Musica Festival’, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with whom he conducted the final concert of the 2004 Edinburgh Festival, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester, Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Sinfonietta, Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Salzburg Mozarteum, Salzburg Camerata, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta, collaborating with Peter Sellars and pianist Helene Grimaud for the premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Lament Tate, Sydney, Melbourne and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras and Japanese Virtuoso Symphony, Nordwestdeustsche Philharmonie and Monte Carlo Philharmonic.

Alexander is also Artistic and Music Director of The Australian World Orchestra, which he founded in 2009.