Alexander Priorconductor, composer
Born on October 5, 1992 in London – is quite a sensation.
The son of an English farmer and a Russian mother who loves the arts (though she is not a musician), his breathtaking musical development and career were hardly predictable, nor was he encouraged or pushed to become a musician. On the contrary!
A few words will scarcely suffice to describe this young artist, who at 18 conducted the premiere of his 6th Symphony, whose ballet Mowgli has been playing in Moscow for 7 years and who at 17 is the youngest student since Sergey Prokofiev to graduate with distinction as a conductor from the Conservatoire in St. Petersburg.
In March 2013 Alexander Prior conducted 5 performances of the opera Carmen at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen. This will be followed on November 2 by the premiere of La Traviata at the Leipzig Opera and in spring 2014 the premiere of the opera Mirandolina by Bohuslav Martinu in a Bavarian State Opera production at Munich's Cuvillé Theater.
The two concerts he conducted at the Summer in Lesmona festival in August 2013 represented the third time he had been invited by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, which was also a sign of their trust in his abilities, since conducting an opera gala and a symphony concert with just ten days' notice is no mean feat for a 20-year-old and meant he had to master the scores in double-quick time.
2014 will see him travel to Canada to conduct the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and to Vienna to wield his baton in the Konzerthaus. In the autumn he will be in charge of overall musical direction of the WDR Music Competition in Cologne, followed shortly afterwards by three concerts with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. His debut in Finland is also scheduled for 2014.
Alexander Prior calls himself a passionate "Nordic musician"; he speaks and writes Danish and Norwegian, often conducts in Scandinavia and has an enormous wealth of repertoire by composers from the Nordic countries at his fingertips. Not surprisingly, he feels a similar close affinity with German-speaking composers like Bruckner and Wagner.
His career as a composer is also prodigious: in 2009, he conducted his Symphony No. 4 "Gogol" for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra – a commission for the department of culture in St. Petersburg – to mark the 200th birthday of the Russian author. "Horizons" for soloists and orchestra was premiered under his baton in 2010 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, while his Triple Concerto "That which must remain unspoken" received its premiere with the Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra in 2011.
In recognition of his commitment and charitable work in making art, music and education more accessible for young people, he was honoured in Russia with two medals – one from the state and one from the Patriarch.
