The clarinet was Alexander Bader’s »reward« for passing the qualifying examination as a young student in the piano division of Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste. The glint of silver on black wood and the mellow, warm sound captivated him from the very beginning, and so, along with his main instrument, he also studied clarinet at the HdK with Manfred Preis and Peter Rieckhoff. After receiving his orchestra diploma he transferred into the soloists’ class taught by Wolfgang Meyer at Karlsruhe’s Staatliche Hochschule für Musik. In 1990 he became a member of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, and together with its other wind soloists he was awarded the 1990 Echo-Klassik prize.
In 2002 he went to Berlin’s Komische Oper as principal clarinet, while also playing regularly with other orchestras including the Bavarian State Opera and the Philharmonic of Munich. Bader moved to the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2006. Since 1994, the musician has also devoted himself to historical performance practice on original instruments and appears regularly with such ensembles as the Vienna Concentus Musicus, the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik. Since the 2006/2007 season he has also been a member of the Scharoun Ensemble.