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Alexander Prior Conductor and Composer • • Kreiszeitung Bremen: "Prior succeeds to interpret the delicate complexity and nuanced shades in a transparent, thoughtful and at the same time very present way". Pforzheimer Zeitung: “Alexander Prior was the crowning highlight of the concert. He brought out passion and great contrasts (in the Mozart Jupiter Symphony)… (the orchestra) was full of sensibility and the andante unfolded with great emotion. One could not escape the brilliant firework of Alexander’s performance.” • • • The Las Vegas Review-‐Journal: “Prior's movements seemed to will the sun to rise… Prior and the musicians gave it a wild life, from infectiously toe-‐tapping to explosive…” The Berkshire Living Magazine (USA): “Prior is on the express track for a potentially meteoric rise… Unlike many conductors, he avoided the trap of sentimentalizing the love music and, near the end, he drew an amazing organ-‐like sonority out of the winds during the entombment and death scene… drawing out all the febrile intensity in the score” “…(the Strauß) was conducted with wit and panache” The Boston Musical Intelligencer: "The light lifting of (Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) was addressed with brio and humor, and the orchestra and crowd loved him!... Prior brought forth in the gracious “Entrance of Cleonte” an unusual hymn-‐like string ensemble…(In the Finale) Prior’s conducting accurately and expressively characterized the stiff formalities, martial posturing, and churlish children, cooking up a mouth-‐watering array of savories...." Alexander Prior, born in London in October 1992, achieved remarkable success at an early age as a prodigiously gifted composer and conductor. He graduated from the St Petersburg State Conservatory in 2009 at just the age of 17, earning distinctions in master’s degrees respectively in composition (studying with Professors Boris Tischenko and Anatoly Korolyov), and opera and symphonic conducting (with Professor Alexander Alexeev). His profile in Britain, established following his UK conducting debut at the Barbican Centre with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2007, was boosted two years later when Channel 4 televised a documentary about his life and work. At the age of sixteen Prior was named as runner-up at the 2009 Leeds International Conducting Competition; he also secured second prize in the composition category of the International Prokofiev Competition in St Petersburg for his Second Piano Concerto ‘Dances of the North’. Next season sees Prior making numerous international debuts. These include his Canadian debut with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, his Austrian Debut with The Vienna Chamber orchestra, his Finnish debut in Oulu with the Oulu Sinfonia, his Macedonian debut with the Macedonian Philharmonic, his debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Oper-Leipzig, several other major operatic guest conducting engagements, as well as returning to almost all the orchestras he has worked with in the past few seasons, and making other debuts. He will lead the Norwegian National Youth Symphony in the summer of 2013. He will also debut with leading German orchestras such as the Dusseldorf Symphoniker, the WDR Symphony Cologne, and the Thungrian Philharmonic Gotha. In addition to making significant guest conducting debuts with, among others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (for the world premiere of his 6th symphony), the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia, Prior’s rapidly evolving career has been marked by its high number of return invitations and close relationships including with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, The Tivoli Symphony Orchestra/Festival, The Royal Danish Opera and Ballet (Det Kongelige Teater) where amongst other things in Spring 2013 he conducted Bizet’s “Carmen”, and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen who included his performance of Vaughan Williams’s symphony no.5 on their Year’s Highlights CD, and whom together with their recordings have been broadcast all over Europe, including recently on BBC Radio 3, to name a few. His profile in Scandinavia has been built on close relationships with orchestras, and a strong commitment to outreach and young-persons work; collaborating with many groups and artists to promote music to many different regions and parts of society. For Alexander, building close human as well as musical bridges is central to his attitude towards music making. The record of Prior’s recent progress underlines the quality of his work and the authority of his musicianship. He was appointed as Chairman’s Fellow Assistant Conductor to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra for the 2009/10 season, where he worked closely with such guest conductors as Thomas Dausgaard, Andrew Manze, Ludovic Morlot, Robert Spano, James Gaffigan and Vassily Sinaisky. He also led the orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.4 and conducted a range of education and outreach concerts. He then went on to attend Tanglewood where he was awarded the James Levine Fellowship, conducting programmes of Strauss and Tchaikovsky alongside Michael Tilson Thomas, Oliver Knussen, Herbert Blomstedt and Robert Spano. He went on to assist Nicholas McGegen and Rafael Frubeck de Burgos at the Los Angeles Philharmonic later that season. He was also a conducting fellow at The Aspen Music Festival in the Summer of 2013. Alexander Prior was appointed Principal Conductor for Seattle’s Northwest Mahler Festival in 2011. Alexander develops close relationships with, among others, mentors Thomas Dausgaard, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Robert Spano, and constantly strives to perfect and expand his art, technique, and knowledge, as well as mentoring and engaging in teaching masterclasses himself. This constant stream and sharing of knowledge based on mutual admiration and respect is crucial to his view of the musical world, and collaboration between colleagues. Additionally Alexander later studied composition with the highly respected Danish Composers Hans Abrahamsen and Bent Sørensen. Alexander’s compositional style has a strong, unique, and distinct voice that can range from the absurdist and totally atonal to many highly lyrical and melodic passages. It’s unifying elements can be found in his strong interest in exploring the widest possible range of human feelings, traditions, and though patterns, as well as a linguistic unity that comes from the unique and vast array of influences and experiences of Alexander’s life: from English renaissance and traditional music, to a huge interest in American minimalism which grew during his time living on the west coast; a personal passion and admiration for languages and comparative linguistics; an active interest in Jazz and Rock music; many formative teenage years spent in Russia steeped in ancient folklore and liturgical music, an enormous interest in folklore of many regions ranging from Gamalan, Corsican, Georgian, Balkan, American First-nations etc. vocal music and perhaps above all the vocal and instrumental music of the very North of Europe: Norwegian, Sami, Celtic, Finnish traditions; a conductor’s education in many ways focussed on German, Czech, Italian, Russian, French, and other classical European traditions; as well as perhaps his most central influence: the Nordic compositional schools of the last 150 years. All of this is interpreted through a vastly multicultural lense, and above all is music that aims to be both of it’s time and of his generation, and also built upon the great traditions of the past. Alexander Prior’s catalogue of compositions is substantial in size and rich in its share of highprofile commissions. His ballet Mowgli, commissioned by the Moscow State Ballet and first performed at the Kremlin Theatre in 2008, secured international critical acclaim for its young composer. Other landmark works include ‘Distant Calls’ for voice and piano quintet, Elegy in memory of Ligeti for cello and piano (one of his most performed works), Horizons: An American Crescendo for four soloists and orchestra (2010), premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under its composer’s direction at the Barbican Centre; Symphony No.4 ‘Gogol’ (2009-10), commissioned by the cultural committee of St Petersburg for the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra and Choir, and his Triple Concerto ‘That which must remain unspoken’ for piano, violin and cello (2011), written for the Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra. In March 2012 The Dallas Symphony premiered his 6th Symphony, commissioned especially for that orchestra and concert. In recognition of his contribution to the music and charitable work to connect young and disadvantaged people with the arts, Alexander Prior was appointed to the Russian Order of the Blue Cross in 2005. He has also received the Patriarch of Russia's Cultural Award for his services to the arts. Despite having only just reached adulthood, Alexander was recently awarded the Blue Cross Order for his work in bringing music to disadvantaged children. He has also received the Patriarch of Russia's Cultural Award for his services to the arts.