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Alexander Kahn was recently appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. He comes to Gettysburg from Berkeley, California, where he completed his Doctorate in Music History and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he was Music Director and founder of the University Chamber Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. Alexander has also served as Music Director of the Berkeley Summer Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Berkeley University Chorus, and Assistant Conductor of the Oakland Civic Orchestra.

During the 2007-2008 season, Alexander was the recipient of an Alfred Hertz Travel Grant, which allowed him to study conducting in Bamberg, Germany. During that season he served as Assistant Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony under Maestro Jonathan Nott. While in Bamberg he also served as Music Director of the Bamberg Collegium Musicum and as Guest Conductor of the Bamberg Universitdt Orchester.

In addition to his activities as a conductor, Alexander remains active as a musicologist. His dissertation entitled Double Lives: Exile Composers in Los Angeles focused on the community of European exiles who fled to Los Angeles during the Third Reich. He has published articles on film music and amateur music-making in nineteenth-century America. Additional research interests include semiotics and twentieth-century performance practice.

Alexander began studying music with his father Eugene Kahn, a violinist, conductor and educator. He earned his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, where he majored in French Horn, Comparative Literature and French. His principal conducting teacher has been David Milnes, and he has also participated in conducting workshops with teachers including Marin Alsop, Larry Rachleff, Kenneth Kiesler, Daniel Lewis and Gustav Meier. He has worked with orchestras across the United States and in Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania.