About Us

Alexander & Buono International enjoys a global reputation as the only consulting firm of its kind while occupying a unique position in the classical music and arts marketplace.

With more than 30 years of performance, marketing, and publicity experience, Barry Alexander (Chairman & COO) and Cosmo Buono (Chairman & CEO) fully understand brand positioning and marketing that lead to career success, and offer clients expert counsel and results-oriented guidance.

Among the firm’s clients are:

  • Deutsche Grammophon and Sorel Classics recording artists

  • Concert pianists

  • Young Steinway Artists

  • Opera singers performing in theaters throughout Europe and the United States

  • Instrumentalists appearing internationally with major orchestras and conductors

  • Students with aspirations of pursuing careers as concert artists

Whether through performance, music education, arts administration, or a vast array of associated professions, the goal of the firm remains to simplify the process by which artists establish fulfilling careers in the classical arts.

At Alexander & Buono International we treat the arts as one would any other business while showing clients how to assess, market, and develop their skills to create greater visibility and awareness of their work.

We make sure that the firm is helping to not only ensure a strong future for the classical arts, but also for those who will help define them.

Barry Alexander

Barry Alexander co-founded Alexander & Buono International with Cosmo Buono in 2005.

Before beginning the consulting firm, Alexander was an opera singer who trained at Princeton University and the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. This led to engagements worldwide, where he appeared as both a concert artist and in production.

 Returning to the United States, he continued his operatic career performing throughout North America, where Dean Nolan described him as “an artist of the highest caliber,” and musicologist Mark Lipson dubbed him “Alexander the Great.”

 A strong belief in the need for artists to take an entrepreneurial approach to their careers that focuses as much on business-related matters as music, he collaborates with musicians at every stage of their development to both brand and position their work within the classical music marketplace.

Key to the success of the firm has been consultancies that include master classes and coaching sessions for the improvement of technique and building repertoire, Pre-College and College Admission education modules, and a teacher certification program administered through the Music Teachers National Association with which Alexander & Buono International acts as a Strategic Partner.

These initiatives address the needs of clients at every stage of their careers while providing counseling and expertise that continue to make for sustained success.

Cosmo Buono

Steinway Artist Cosmo Buono first came to international prominence with the Bradshaw & Buono piano team, performing literature written for one piano four hands, and two pianos. He along with the late David Bradshaw did much to restore awareness of rare works written by Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Schubert while creating a discography that includes Grammy-nominated recordings.

As the founder of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, which has been called “one of the most important piano competitions in the world,” he created a business model allowing contestants to submit video performances from which multiple winners of different age categories are chosen and given a performance debut at Carnegie Hall as a First Prize, or a full professional CD, produced and marketed through Alexander & Buono International.

Among the many students Cosmo has taught and advised are Jan Lisiecki, as well as Umi Garrett, George Ko, Arianna Körting, John Nalan, Andrew Vargas, and Yawei Zhao, all Young Steinway Artists, a list including only 120 pianists worldwide.

Having always approached performance and education with the kind of skill and patience that led him to be named Steinway & Sons Top Teacher of the Year for 2021, he not only works with consulting clients who perform on the world’s most important stages but also with students through Alexander & Buono International Academy’s Pre-College and College Admissions programs, having gained acceptance for them to more than two dozen colleges and universities, including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Vassar, and Yale.

In his role as a coach and consultant, he has distinguished himself as one of the foremost teachers of the Leschetizky Method in the United States. Leschetizky was known for producing pianists capable of a resonant, almost voice-like quality on the piano, and it is that same technique that is part of Buono’s overall pedagogy. Advocating rich and expressive playing, he discourages students from note-perfect performances that lack enthusiasm, in favor of a complete understanding and communication of the musical idiom of the composer.