Alexander Gebert was born in 1977 to a family of musicians in Warsaw. When he was three years old, they moved to Finland, where in 1982 he started to study cello with Timo Hanhinen at the Turku Conservatory. Later he became a student at the Sibelius Academy in the classes of Csaba Szilvay, Victoria Yaglig, Kazimierz Michalik, Marko Ylönen and Heikki Rautasalo. From 1995 through 1998 he received a Polish state scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. After his graduation there he continued his studies with Philippe Muller at the Paris Conservatory and on a DAAD scholarship with Natalia Gutman at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart. In 2002 he was granted a three-year scholarship from the Groupe Banques Populaires in Paris.
Encounters with Wolfgang Boettcher, Janos Starker, Milos Sadlo, Natalia Schachowskaja and Zoria Shikhmurzaeva were very influential to him.
Alexander Gebert won his first international contest at the age of 16. In 1997 he came in second at the Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, and the year 2000 saw him win Third Prize at the Antonio Janigro Contest in Zagreb, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the International Geneva Cello Combetition (where he played with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Heinrich Schiff conducting), and First Prize at the Valentino Bucchi Contest of Rome subsequently.
He has widely performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician at many prestigious venues (1.a. Kuhmo Festival, Oleg-Kagan-Musikfest, Festival de Deauville, Ravinia Festival, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, West Cork Music, Beethoven Festival in
Warsaw). Encounters with composers of our time such as Mauricio Kagel, Salvatore Sciarrino, Friedrich Cerha, Krzysztof Meyer, Krzysztof Penderecki, Kaija Saariaho, Aribert Reimann, Albert Schneltzer und Kurt Schwertsik, Richard Dünser were of particular importance to him. 2007-2011 Alexander Gebert gave two yearly recitals in the Musikverein Wien, which included a series of first performances of works commissioned from composers such as Richard Dünser (“Garden of Desires”, Ed. Peters), Tomasz Skweres (“Hesitation” Ed. Doblinger), Lukas Haselböck, Akos Banlaky, Helmut Schmidinger and Christoph Renhart.
In 2004 he was invited to join the Altenberg Trio Wien, and stayed with the ensemble until 2012. Since its ,, official* debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week (January 1994), the Altenberg Trio Wien had in far more than 1000 performances earned the reputation of one of the most daring and consistent ensembles in this category: its repertory comprised – in addition to a large number of works from directly related fields (piano quartets & quintets, duos, triple concertos, vocal chamber music) near to 200 piano trios, among them many pieces which the Altenberg Trio suggested and first performed itself.
Simultaneously with its foundation, the ensemble became trio in residence of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, annually performing a cycle in the Brahms Saal of Musikverein. Its regular activities also included the artistic directorship of the Brahmsfest Mürzzuschlag and the music festival at Schloss Weinzierl.
