Music Department

Dr. Alexander Pershounin serves as the full-time Assistant Professor of Double Bass and Bass Guitar at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has performed in internationally renowned music events including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland; Pori Jazz Festival, Finland; Europe Jazz Contest, Belgium; as well as various festivals, concerts, and lecture recitals in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and many cities of the Russian Federation and United States. His performing credits include collaborative projects and appearances with world class artists and ensembles including Bob Berg, Benny Golson, Valery Ponomarev, Tom "Bones" Malone, Ray Charles, Yo Yo Ma, Doc Severinsen, "MKC Big Band," "Jazz Gallery," "Melody," "Plus Eleven Quartet," and "Green Wave." He has also recorded several commercially produced compact disc albums and music to four full-length motion pictures.

Pershounin graduated from Russia's most prestigious musical institutions: Gnessins' State Music College and Gnessins' Russian Academy of Music majoring in Double Bass Performance and Jazz Studies. His professional music career started at the age of sixteen when, leading and participating in numerous music projects, he began extensively concertizing throughout Europe. He came to the United States in 1998 and received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi. His doctoral dissertation, The Three-String Solo Double Bass: Origins, Advantages, and Decline, presents the instrument in a new light.