As a result, according to accompanist Lori Loftus, "the character of the work can come through." As for the singers, "they come forth with real joy," says Samuelson.

Is talent like Alexander's in the genes, or does it come from early training? Those on opposite sides of the nature-vs.-nurture controversy both can find support in Alexander's early life. His father was a choral conductor and tenor in New Orleans. Seven of his father's 11 brothers and sisters were musicians, and five were choral conductors. Alexander himself became a violinist. "That was a strong factor in how I think about music," he recounts. "It trains your ear because you have to tune your instrument, not just press a key."

His work with choruses began as a child and continued throughout his formal education. He sang in a professional boys' chorus from ages 9 to 13 while attending a private school in New York City. At 13 he took on his first directing assignment, conducting a church choir. At Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he became a specialist in the orchestral-choral repertoire. While studying for his master's degree at the University of Kentucky, he formed a summer chorus for the Lexington Symphony Orchestra. Then Max Rudolf of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked him to prepare a chorus for him.

By age 28 he was performing the Berlioz Requiem at the Los Angeles Music Center, leading an orchestra of 120 and a chorus of 300. That event remains a career highlight, along with conducting the Brahms Requiem at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris and moving the Pacific Chorale into the Orange County Performing Arts Center after surviving venues like Santa Ana High School.

He looks forward to the opening of both the new Orange County Symphony Hall and the Performing Arts Center at Cal State Fullerton in January. The latter, he says, is "the most important thing that's happened in the history of the university's music program. We've never had a campus hall with proper acoustics for concerts. It will have an extraordinary effect on students. We owe a debt to President Gordon and Dean Samuelson for making it happen."

"John Alexander is one of the nation's foremost choral conductors and choral visionaries." John Forsyte President of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra

Alexander is known for the variety of music he programs - both classics and contemporary pieces such as Jim Hopkins' "Songs of Eternity" and the West Coast premiere of John Adams' "On the Transmigration of Souls" (in honor of victims of the 9/11 attacks and using as a text the missing persons signs posted in New York City).

"I want Brahms and Beethoven to stay in the repertory for the next 200 years," he says, "but it's special to have a living composer at rehearsals and at the performance. There's nothing like hearing a composer describe what he's trying to bring to life with the music. It's always improved our performance."

Alexander disagrees with the view that classical music is doomed to occupy an ever-smaller niche within the panoply of musical styles. "Classical music did suffer in the mid-20th century because compositional techniques became so unfriendly to audiences. We've outgrown that. The new century will bring listenable music that will find an audience."

The caveat, he says, is that people must be exposed to classical compositions as children. "Then it opens up a light and becomes accessible." He compares classical music to chess and popular music to checkers. "You can learn [checkers] quickly but become bored with it quickly as well," whereas chess, despite or because of its greater difficulty, provides long-lasting fascination.

Alexander will retire from the university next year but not from conducting or composing. (Among his published choral works are "Musica," "Our Father," and "This Time of Kites.") He will travel more but will remain based in Orange County.

"He's a real ally in creating a classical life in Orange County," says the Pacific Symphony's St. Clair. "We're lucky to have him leading the charge."

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