Leni Alexander

Helene Sara Alexander Pollack (; 8 June 1924 – 7 August 2005) was a German-Chilean modernist composer who was among the first to experiment with electronic music in Chile. She fled to Chile in 1939 to escape the Nazi regime in Germany and eventually became a naturalised Chilean citizen in 1951. Alexander was also known for her efforts to promote Chilean and Latin American music across Europe, in addition to her musical educational schemes in Chile. Early life and education Helene Sara Alexander was born on 8 June 1924 in Breslau, Province of Lower Silesia (present-day Wrocław, Poland) to a Jewish family. Alexander’s father, Max Alexander (1898–1962), was a publishing executive and her mother, Ilse Pollack (1894–1964), was an opera singer. Alexander grew up in Hamburg where she first studied piano. In April 1939, Alexander, her mother and step-father fled Nazi Germany on one of the last German ships destined to Santiago. On 28 October 1940, Nazi regime stripped Alexander of her German citizenship. Alexander later studied psychology at the University of Chile, where she specialized Montessori method of teaching for children with disabilities. During this period Alexander developed he