Music Description:
Born to a French mother and an American father, Alexander Whitener's early years are surrounded by lots of Jazz playing in the house, as both his parents played a little bit of guitar and there was a piano in the house. At seven, he starts taking classical music lessons on the piano. By the time he joins the National Conservatory of Jazz in 2006 (Lyon - France), he had already had many great teachers, such as Mario Stantchev, Serge and Luc Plouton, Norbert Paul, worked on projects with producer Bunny Rizzitelli (who was also Jean Michel Jarre's ex drummer) and performed in acoustic and electronic bands (Alienhearts - Electro Trance).
Besides playing the piano, Alexander developed a keen interest in electronic music. He was fascinated by the idea that one can single-handedly produce a whole song, with virtually unlimited possibilities using only a computer. This is considerably helpful to a composer who doesn't have access to a whole orchestra and a big recording studio. Understanding as much as possible about different music instruments is essential for composition, and even though Alexander admits his knowledge of instruments around the world is rather limited, he has however practiced many years on various ones, from drums, percussion, bass, to guitar, ukulele, violin and even some singing !
In 2006, Alexander Whitener starts a project for a French web-sitcom with his brother Michael Whitener. The lack of budget at the time pushed the two brothers to use their skills to the best of their ability, thus assuming, all at the same time, the roles of : writers, casting managers, editors, directors, actors, music composers... This is when his true passion for composing different musical genres came into being.
For the past few years, Alexander Whitener has worked for, and with, many companies as a music composer, creating theme songs, trailer soundtracks, commercials, radio jingles and much more, as well as playing in different live bands.
At the moment, he is involved with Skwhere, a futuristic and innovative electronic music band, which projects live shows, in real time, on a cinema screen, using a system of cameras.
Today, Alexander Whitener lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where he came, full of passion and ambition, to take up new musical heights.
Biography by Sara Decipiens.
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Fungipassion Bio (Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms) :
Born in 1984, I grew up in a small village in the south of France where mushroom picking is part of our tradition. My interest in the wonders of nature has always played an important role in of my life. At 13 years of age, I had a dozen aquariums and terrariums in my bedroom. At this time, I was learning the techniques to breed different species of tropical fish and filling my terrariums with everything I could find around the house from snakes to scorpions to the somewhat questionable pleasure of my parents.
A few years later, as I became more aware of the many ecological problems our planet faces, including the sad business of tropical fish taken from the wild, I left the animal kingdom to pursue my passion of nature toward the plant kingdom. Learning the name of plants and trees, growing food, orchids and bonsais became a new chapter of my life. With organic culture and the discovery of permaculture, it was inevitable that sooner or later I would reach the door of the Fungi Kingdom.
Recently, I have become increasingly passionate about mushrooms from identification, cultivation, health benefits, culinary uses, to mushroom-picking and so on. Animals depend on plants which rely on fungi. Learning about nature seems to be a lifetime adventure, and the more one looks into it, the more one realizes that there is very little we know.
