Alexander & Buono International (ABI) is the parent company of The Alexander & Buono Competitions (ABC), and The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music (ABFM). The company has been developed to provide classical music artists with the tools they need for building and sustaining successful careers.

Founded in 2006, ABI has been responsible for helping hundreds of artists advance their career objectives through recitals, guest appearances, business seminars, and ongoing career counseling. With competitions for Piano, Voice, Strings, and Flute, winners are selected in various age categories and given further experience through a debut at Carnegie Hall, and performances for The Annual ABC Gala, The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music, as well as in selected venues in New York and throughout the world.

ABI also helps artists through The Alexander & Buono Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that provides scholarships and study grants for selected Competition winners.

We believe that musicians achieve their greatest success when they understand how to market themselves as a product, and handle their careers as one would any other business. By giving classical artists the tools necessary for accomplishing this, we continue to help them realize more of their career goals.

The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music is an eight-day symposium and conference that offers classical musicians studying Piano, Voice, Strings and Flute the opportunity to hone repertoire, refine technique, and enhance their marketing and professional career skills through lessons and master classes, as well as performance and business seminars. Structured as a musical laboratory where musicians work with distinguished professors and established artists, the Festival promotes artistic and professional growth that facilitates career advancement.

The twenty-third annual session of the Festival will take place from July 10-17, 2011. Concerts featuring Festival participants are planned for Friday July 15 and Saturday July 16.

Although full enrollment is limited to thirty musicians, the Festival management is prepared to offer a second session to take place from July 18-25, 2011, should the need arise. Options are also available to enroll in classes on a tuition-only basis, as well as daily auditing of classes for a particular instrument.

The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music began in 1988 in response to a need Cosmo Buono and the late David Bradshaw saw was prevalent among accomplished musicians to “try out” new repertoire in small settings, while also being able to work with talented professors who would coach the artists, and help them refine their performances of works to the fullest extent possible. Having originally been established in Tolentino, and later Venice, Italy, artists came from all over the world to take advantage of the daily instruction, practice time, and performance opportunities that were offered. Performers left the Festival with new ideas and approaches to works, and insights into how to perform them more effectively. Nearly a quarter-century later this tradition continues, with many of the Festival participants returning year after year to further their artistic and professional growth.

Four years ago Barry Alexander, a public relations executive with an extensive background in opera, was asked to partner with Mr. Buono as one of the Festival’s new Executive Directors. The establishment of New York City as the new and permanent seat of the Festival comes in response not only to a desire on the part of the Festival management to take advantage of all the cultural opportunities New York has to offer, but to also give artists the most substantial performance credentials possible.

As the Festival has grown, so has the desire of Messrs. Alexander & Buono to fully prepare artists for a career. Knowing that every musician must be well-acquainted with the fiscal and marketing aspects of his or her work in order to ensure success, seminars on these subjects have been incorporated into the daily schedule of the Festival. Instruction is given in areas such as how to audition, creating press kits, how to get management, and generating leads for performance opportunities. Performance seminars allow students to take what they have learned in classes and practice periods and perform before other Festival participants in a collegial atmosphere that encourages positive feedback from an audience, thereby helping to refine the overall quality of performance.

The Annual ABC Gala is the primary fundraising event for The Alexander & Buono Competitions (ABC). When the Gala first began in 2008, the goal was to create a vehicle for both honoring people in the fields of Classical Music and Education, while also helping to provide scholarships and study grants for ABC winners. The event continues to grow each year, thereby expanding the support offered to as many artists as possible.

Annual Gala additional information.

With a mission to identify the world’s most promising classical musicians while helping them launch and sustain careers, The Alexander & Buono Foundation is responsible for having helped artists worldwide further their musical goals through scholarships, study grants, career advice and performance opportunities.

The Foundation’s annual fundraiser is The ABC Gala. Named for The Alexander & Buono Competitions for Piano, Voice, Strings, and Flute begun by Barry Alexander and Cosmo Buono, ABC offers its winners a debut at Carnegie Hall as a first prize.

Funds raised from the Gala have helped advance the career goals of many artists, among them pianist Anna Shelest, who after winning First Prize in the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition went on to make her Stern Auditorium-Carnegie Hall debut with orchestra, and her Alice Tully Hall debut a month later, along with another Bradshaw & Buono winner, Kana Mimaki.

Most recently, Ania Hejar, after winning the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition, was asked to perform with l'Orchestre Métropolitain, conducted by Alain Trudel.

Stories like these are part of the Foundation’s legacy to the new generation of classical musicians, as Messrs. Alexander and Buono are not only interested in offering scholarships and grants, but also solid advice and counsel at all stages of career development. In addition, many participants in The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music, held annually in New York, receive full scholarships to attend, which allows them to take advantage of the daily master classes, performance, and business seminars offered.

The many initiatives begun by The Alexander & Buono Foundation include mentoring programs for executives pursuing careers in Arts Administration; advice in publicity and media relations for aspiring classical musicians; internship programs for classical music students interested in learning more about the business of music; and an educational outreach program to schools that provides free tickets for students to attend ABC events.

The Foundation is a fully compliant 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, registered in the State of New York. All donations are fully tax-exempt under the rules of the Internal Revenue Service.