Alex Dugdale is an award-winning musician, educator, and tap dancer based in Seattle. A graduate of Eastman School of Music, Alex currently teaches elementary band and orchestra for Seattle Public Schools, wind instruments at the Seattle Drum School, as well as tap dance for the University of Washington’s dance department. He regularly performs with many of Seattle’s finest bands including the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and The Seattle Symphony. A passionate educator, Alex has taught both tap dance and music as a full time teacher and guest educator for the last decade.
Alex was adopted from Cali, Colombia and raised in Seattle. At just four years old, he fell in love with tap dancing after seeing Savion Glover on Sesame Street. Later, as a young performer with the NYC Tap Festival, Alex experienced a rhythmic and musical awakening after jamming with a busking musician in the New York City subway. He realized that music was a tool of expression just like a language, connecting people to each other and bringing them together. A graduate of Roosevelt High School, Alex returned to Seattle in 2013 after college and formed his own jazz quintet, FADE and was named the Golden Ear's Emerging Artist of the Year in 2016.
Alex was recently named 2020 Earshot Jazz Golden Ear NW Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year. As a leader and a sideman, Alex has performed at almost every music venue in the Seattle area, with regular appearances at Egan’s Ballard Jam House, Tula’s Restaurant and Jazz Club, the Sea Monster Lounge, and Capitol Cider. Outside of Seattle, he has performed in New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and internationally at the Umbria Jazz Festival. He was also a faculty member with the Centrum Jazz Educator Track Director for several years. Alex has tap danced and played music with a wide-ranging group of artists including the The Temptations, the Four Tops, Rochester Philharmonic, Port Angeles Symphony, Space Coast Symphony, and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, and internationally with the Vancouver Symphony.
John Hansen --Piano
Jun Iida -- Trumpet
Max Holmberg -- Drums
Greg Feingold --- Bass
Alex Dugdale --- Saxophone and drums