BIOGRAPHY: ALEXANDER BERNE, COMPOSER & SAXOPHONIST

Alexander Berne is a composer, visual artist, and virtuoso musician of the highest order. Born in New York, he cut his teeth on the jazz scene—after studies with Tim Ries, John Purcell, and Eddie Daniels he began working with such luminaries as Billy Hart, Victor Lewis, Mark Johnson, Ethan Iverson, Cecil Taylor, Ben Monder, John Hollenbeck, Kevin Hays, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Albert “Tootie” Heath and many others. During that period he taught at the prestigious Stanford University Jazz Workshop alongside Joe Henderson and Stan Getz.

Berne then moved to Belgium where he devoted himself to solo saxophone performances, to highest acclaim at Logos and elsewhere for using technical innovation to sonically transport listeners.

Returning to America, Berne became involved in film production, working on and producing independent documentaries and features for his company, Harbor Productions, including work with Nicholas Hytner and Jim Broadbent at the Royal National in London, Brian DePalma, Edward Pressman, Paul Williams, and Armondo Linus Acosta. This was accompanied by a phase of creative activity in the visual arts, where he invented a new form of painting involving the abstracts play of photo emulsion and acrylics on paper. 

Berne is an innovator in the woodwind realm, specializing in alto, soprano, and sopranino saxophones. He was involved in the creation and production of a new kind of mouthpiece, in collaboration with David Sanborn. In addition, he created his own instrument, collaborating with famous instrument maker Michael Hubbard.  Called the ‘saduk’, it is a cross between a saxophone and the Armenian duduk, and has a warm, woody tone unlike any ever heard before.

A musician with serious interest in the music of other cultures, Berne dedicated years of his life to the study of the tabla and Indian Classical Music, studying with Misha Masud and others. During this phase he developed relationships with Debashish Bhattacharya, Krishna Bhatt and other world instrumentalists such as Lu Fang and Glenn Velez.