Alexander Knecht

Alexander Knecht, a Southern California native, joined the San Diego Symphony in June 2025. Previously he served on the faculty of Riverside City College as a violin and viola instructor. As a freelance musician, he has performed with the Pacific Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Long Beach Symphony (where he had been a member since 2018), Luis Miguel on tour, Paul Anka and Mariachi Sol de México. He has performed frequently as a solo and chamber musician for the Glendale Noon Concerts series and the Alhambra Performing Arts Center, including as soloist on the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in 2023.

He has been active as a volunteer with CKC-Music, a community engagement program in San Bernardino that has provided free music lessons to local children since its founding in 2008. In 2019 he founded a free violin class outreach program at the Los Angeles Chinese Seventh-Day Adventist Church. From 2020 until 2025, he worked weekly as a worship musician at his local parish, St. Joseph the Worker in Loma Linda.

In past summers he has served on the faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival and the Concordia University Summer Chamber Music Camp. In 2024 he studied in the master class of José Hernández at the Mariachi Nationals Workshop in Santa Ana. He has been a fellow at the Gonggeng Music Festival in Zhejiang Province, China, the Music Academy of the West and the Aspen Music Festival. He comes from a musical family of Chinese, Korean and Caucasian ancestry and has three siblings, all of whom play and have taught string instruments.

Alexander Knecht holds a DMA from the University of Southern California, a Master's degree from Juilliard, and degrees in violin and mathematics from La Sierra University. His primary teachers in school were Brian Chen, Bing Wang, Masao Kawasaki and Jason Uyeyama.