He became the first Indonesian musician to perform on the Grammy Awards as well as to chart on Billboard 200 when his album My Favorite Things debuted at number 174 and then peaked at 59.

[1] Alexander played at the Montreal and Newport Jazz Festivals in 2015 and has performed for Herbie Hancock, Bill Clinton, Wendy Kiess, and Barack Obama.

Alexander was born in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, to parents Denny Sila and Farah Leonora Urbach, who ran an adventure tourism business.

[9] He cites as influences John Coltrane, Harry Connick Jr., Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock, and he particularly admires Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Brad Mehldau, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner.

[1][9] At the age of nine, he won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Master-Jam Fest, an all-ages jazz competition in Odesa, Ukraine, which included 43 musicians from 17 nations.

Moutoussamy-Ashe introduced him to Gordon Uehling III, founder of the CourtSense Tennis Training Center, who allowed Alexander and his family to stay at his estate in Alpine, New Jersey.

The concert, which received national media attention on NBC News, was successful enough for him to obtain an O-1B visa, which is granted to "individuals with extraordinary ability".

[7] Alexander's debut album, My Favorite Things, was released on 12 May 2015, on the Harlem-based label Motéma Music and produced by Jason Olaine.

[9] He arranged all of its songs, which includes renditions of "'Round Midnight", Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life".

[8][9] My Favorite Things featured Alexander alongside Russell Hall, Alphonso Horne and Sammy Miller, as well as guest performers Larry Grenadier and Ulysses Owens.

[12] It featured his trio of Dan Chmielinski and Ulysses Owens, augmented by bassist Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Chris Potter.

[20] Past collaborators Kendrick Scott and Larry Grenadier return, with featured musicians Gilad Hekselman and Chris Potter.