BIOGRAPHY
Delivering performances of exceptional color, virtuosity, and imagination, Alexander Richard Straus-Fausto has emerged as one of the leading young organists of his generation. Equally at home in music of the Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, and contemporary periods, he is recognized for interpretations that combine technical command with a refined sensitivity to registration, acoustics, and orchestral sonority. As both performer and transcriber, he has earned international recognition for expanding the artistic possibilities of the organ and introducing the instrument to new audiences.
Straus-Fausto was named to The Diapason’s “20 Under 30” Class of 2023, recognizing outstanding young artists who have made significant contributions to organ performance, harpsichord, and church music. In 2025, he was featured in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Top 30 Under 30,” highlighting Canada's most accomplished musicians under the age of thirty.
The 2026 season includes recital engagements throughout Canada, the United States, Norway, and Denmark, including two solo concerts at the Bergen International Organ Festival.
Recent seasons have brought performances at some of the world's most distinguished churches, cathedrals, and concert venues, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, La Madeleine, Trinity Church Wall Street, Princeton University Chapel, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Grace Cathedral, St. Philip's Cathedral, and the Spoleto Festival USA.
A committed advocate for the continued growth of the organ repertoire, Straus-Fausto has created more than fifty original transcriptions for the instrument, including works by Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wagner, Gabriel Fauré, Richard Strauss, and Alexander Borodin. His performances are distinguished by their registrational imagination and stylistic versatility, ranging from historic tracker instruments to the great symphonic organs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through inventive programming and a lifelong commitment to orchestral transcription, he seeks to illuminate the organ's remarkable expressive range.
Straus-Fausto has appeared as a semifinalist in both the Toulouse International Organ Competition and the Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, and participated in Wesleyan University's celebration of Wagner transcriptions for organ. In addition to his performing career, he has presented guest masterclasses and lectures at Wesleyan University. Supported by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, he completed a recital tour of Great Britain in 2019, appearing in major churches and cathedrals throughout England.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the Yale School of Music, and the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, Straus-Fausto studied with many of the world's foremost organ pedagogues. At the age of nineteen, he was appointed titular organist of L'église du Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus, home to one of Canada's largest pipe organs, where he developed a lasting affinity for the French symphonic tradition and the art of transcription. He currently serves as Artistic Director of the Miami International Organ Competition.
Straus-Fausto is represented by Seven Eight Artists.
Photo by Tam Lan Troung
"Known for his imaginative outlook, innovative programming, and colorful style" - Nancye Tuttle (The Lowell Sun)
"The icing on the cake was Alexander's exquisite playing . . ."
-Rudy Lucente
"A brilliant and intelligent musician gifted with a clear idea of what he wishes to achieve in each performance. His creativity easily gives the audience an experience that is not easily forgotten. I can always count on Alex to give us performance excellence at a level far beyond his years."
-Gordon D Mansell, Organix Concerts
"Alexander Straus-Fausto took an assured, whimsical approach to the D Major Prelude and Fugue from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 874), each measure introducing some fresh orchestral color or percussion" -Jonathan Ambrosino, Choir and Organ.
Alex showed admirable registrational restraint, letting it become a slow burn all the way up to a
stentorian close, with the frenzied cadenza-like pedal riffs charging like race-horses. Part of the attraction of Spoleto is watching the rising generation that is coming to prominence — Alex Straus-Fausto is certainly an organ virtuoso to watch out for.
-Spoleto Festival
