Alex DePue began studying classical violin at age five. He won his first university-level solo artist competition at age 10, and later (age 14) won a competition which awarded a performance at NYC’s Carnegie Hall, serving as Concertmaster under the direction of Joseph Silverstein for the National Guild Youth Symphony Orchestra. He continues to appear as guest soloist withorchestras and music festivals, worldwide.

Alex DePue’s orchestral education involved participation with his local youth orchestra by age seven, and progressed with an invitation to join the Bowling Green Philharmonia, the top college-level orchestra at Bowling Green State University, while still only a high school freshman. All the while serving as concertmaster each Summer at All-State Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio was the “norm” for DePue.

Especially fortunate for DePue, BGSU became a revolving door for Music Directors during that time, and included some now-prestigious names who stepped on up to that particular podium at the school. Alex DePue served as concertmaster under the baton of Robert Spano (now with Atlanta Symphony), Grzegorz Nowak (now with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London), and finally, as DePue’s “official” full-scholarship for study began at BGSU in 1990, Dr. Emily Freeman-Brown took the podium and maintains the position to this day.

Simultaneously, Alex balanced his life as a college student with professional work as a violin substitute for the Toledo Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yuval Zaliouk. By the end of DePue’s reign as concertmaster for BGSU, he had logged thousands of hours under the batons of these heavy hitters in the Classical music world.

In 1988, Alex DePue took a full scholarship ride to the esteemed Batiquitos Music Festival in Carlsbad, CA with Yehudi Menuhin as the Festival Chair, and under the direction of Leonid Grin, worked alongside legendary pianist Gary Graffman, once again as concertmaster, this time for the Batiquitos Festival Orchestra.

Alex DePue’s private teachers include Aaron Rosand, Camilla Wicks, Stacy Phelps, Dr. Eugene Gratovich, Dr. Paul Makara, Dr. Bernard Linden, and chamber music coaching with world renowned pianist, Jerome Rose.

Alex DePue’s YouTube videos are from all parts of the globe, and his #1 YouTube hit (featured for three weeks on YouTube’s home-page), “Owner of a Lonely Heart/Smooth Criminal”‘ (Yes and Michael Jackson, respectively) has been viewed worldwide over four million times (reposting).

Alex toured as Musical Director with Capitol Recording artist Chris Cagle from 2000-2006, with whom he still regularly appears (syndicate) on the Grand Ole Opry, CMT, Great American Country and VH1 Country.

From 2007 – 2010, Mr. DePue joined legendary rock guitarist, Steve Vai, for a world tour that took him across North America, South America and Europe. 2010 continued celebration for Vai’s 2009 DVD release, “Steve Vai: Where the WILD THINGS Are” (a live concert music-movie cofeaturing DePue), its GRAMMY nomination for Best Live Rock Instrumental Performance at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards and Gold Record (award issued to each band/cast member) from the Recording Industry Association of America in recognition of “Gold” sales status in both the US and Canada (Platinum Award from the Canadian Recording Industry Association). Vai and DePue remain close colleagues, and continue to collaborate behind the scenes.

Alex DePue (with Mexican guitarist, Miguel De Hoyos) performed in Rio de Janeiro as special guests for the global launch of “ArtsGames”, an effort to bring the arts back into the International spotlight, in conjunction with the Summer Olympics (August 11th, 2016).

Despite decades of intense classical training, Alex became interested in fiddling at age seven, and began competing in “fiddle” contests. He reigned as the Michigan State Fiddling Champion from 1994-1998, won the first-place trophy at the Walnut Valley National Fiddling Championship in Winfield, Kansas in 1999 and 2005, first place in the Halletsville, TX “Gone to Texas National Fiddling Championship” in 2000, first place in the Alabama state fiddle contest in 2006 and 2007, and first place in the California state fiddle contest in 2007. Also in 2006, he was deemed,

“Fiddle King” in Athens, AL (Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention). Alex served as a judge at the National Old-time Fiddling Championship (Weiser, ID) in 2008, and in 2010 and 2011, won first place in the Twin Fiddle division while ranking among the Top 10 finalists in the Grand National Championship division.

In 2015, Alex released another solo project entitled, “All 4 1”, focused on the vast array of styles available to the violin, including all genres. Alex’s most popular recording, “The Fiddler”, was his first professional studio effort (1999). His latest studio effort (2018) “Modern Paganini”, has been extolled as one of the greatest fiddle records ever produced. Those recordings can be found at all of the most popular platforms for digital music available online.

With a background in classical violin, along with the ability to turn on a dime towards bluegrass fiddling, jazz, rock, and/or any improvisational style available to the instrument, Alex is also fluent on the viola, mandolin, guitar, bass, drums and piano.