David, Alexandra

Alexandra is a most sought out and devoted teacher. American and international pianists attend Central Michigan University in order to study under her guidance. Her students have won prizes in auditions and competitions and consistently achieve success in their career paths. She is an active participant in the movement devoted to performance anxiety management. Her contributions to this cause include the development and implementation of a successful performance anxiety management course at CMU, as well as presenting papers at national and international conferences and offering lectures and workshops on the subject throughout the U.S. and abroad. Another of Alexandra’s areas of interest has been that of how to teach effortless and injury-less piano technique. Her own research and knowledge, coupled with lessons with Edna Golandsky and Joseph Gurt on the Dorothy Taubman approach to piano technique, led Alexandra to create and develop her own method of building technical skills in a methodic and systematic way, whilst preventing students from incurring piano-related injuries, despite assiduous practice. 

Alexandra is a native of Portugal and has devoted the last three decades of her life to exploring and unearthing the music of Portuguese and Brazilian composers, especially that of Francisco Mignone. She is in the forefront of presenting Mignone’s piano music, and her performances, especially of his Valsas brasileiras (Brazilian Waltzes), have been widely acclaimed. Her compact disc recording of Volume One of the Valsas brasileiras was highly praised by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution upon its release in 2001. Volume Two was released in 2007, and of both discs, the widow of the composer stated: “It was very emotional to hear pianist Alexandra Mascolo-David perform the Valsas Brasileiras of my husband Francisco Mignone. Alexandra interprets Mignone with great sensitiveness, wonderful taste, and full knowledge of his compositional legacy. Undoubtedly, her musical contribution is important, of enormous beauty, possessing both a captivating sonority and a complete affinity with the romantic atmosphere of the waltzes.” Alexandra’s continuing research on Mignone’s music earned her a Research Excellence Grant from Central Michigan University to record Mignone’s Fantasias Brasileiras (Brazilian Fantasies) for piano and orchestra with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Raymond Harvey, for the White Pine Music recording label in a 2010 release. This recording is historically significant, as it is the first set of the 4 Brazilian Fantasies available to the public. Alexandra is also a founding member of Yara Ensemble (www.yaraensemble.com), with mezzo-soprano Sarah Stone, director Annette Thornton, and media artist Eric Limarenko, devoted to exploring the rich landscape of Iberian-American culture and heritage through music, videography and movement. 

In addition to performing traditional solo and chamber literature, Alexandra has championed works by numerous contemporary composers, especially those of the late David Maslanka. Her performance in Maslanka’s “Piano Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Winds and Percussion” released by Albany Records in 2005 received accolades from the American Record Guide. Alexandra also co-commissioned Maslanka’s “Piano Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Wind Symphony,” as part of a consortium of universities. The world premiere of this work took place at Central Michigan University (CMU) in February 2017, with the composer in attendance, a mere 6 months prior to his death. 

 Alexandra has taught at the Interlochen Arts camp, at Iowa State University, and currently is Professor of Piano at Central Michigan University. She is the ecstatic survivor of an unruptured brain aneurysm craniotomy (2010). Ever since her miraculous recovery, she has lectured throughout the U.S. on the vital role that music played in her full rehabilitation. After many months of motor, occupational and some speech therapies, Alexandra feels incredibly fortunate to have recovered her ability to play the piano and to have been given a new chance at life. 

Alexandra holds a piano diploma from the Oporto Conservatory of Music, Portugal, and the doctor of musical arts in piano from the University of Kansas, where her teacher was Sequeira Costa. Alexandra is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards in her field. For additional information regarding Alexandra’s life, career and recordings, please visit the following Internet address: www.mascolo-david.com.

Recent Scholarships

Mascolo-David is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the First Prize in the Piano Competition of Braga, Portugal, and the 2001 Provost’s Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity and the 2007 Presidents’ Award for Research and Creative Activity, both from Central Michigan University.    Also in 2007, Ms. Mascolo-David received a Research Excellence Grant from Central Michigan University in the amount of $95,000 to record Francisco Mignone’s Brazilian Fantasies for piano and orchestra with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, under Raymond Harvey, for the White Pine Music recording label.