AlpeshChauhan OBE
- Conductor
About Alpesh
Principal Guest Conductor: Düsseldorfer Symphoniker Music Director: Birmingham Opera Company Principal Conductor & Musical Advisor: National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
British conductor Alpesh Chauhan is Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company and the recently appointed Principal Conductor & Musical Advisor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Praised for his “exceptional musical talent” (GB Opera) and his “lithe, expressive and bold conducting style” (Seen & Heard), he works regularly with major orchestras including City of Birmingham Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Gavle Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique and Vancouver Symphony. His long-standing relationship with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker is lauded both for its creative and bold programming and special audience connection.
Further recent highlights include Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, National Symphony of Washington, Toronto Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI Torino & London Philharmonic. Alpesh regularly collaborates with renowned soloists including Karen Cargill, Sir Stephen Hough, Hilary Hahn, Johannes Moser, Pablo Ferrandez, Benjamin Grosvenor, Pavel Kolesnikov, Simone Lamsma and Simon Hofele.
As Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company, Alpesh champions a unique approach to bringing opera to the wider community of Birmingham – following his mentorship by the company’s founder – the late Sir Graham Vick, with their recent Keith Warner production of Tippett’s New Year being praised for its "exemplary music-making" (The Guardian) and Judith Weir’s “women.life.song” recently being nominated for a RPS award. Past productions include ‘RhineGOLD’ which was broadcast on SkyArts and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for which Chauhan was named Newcomer of the Year at the 2021 International Opera Awards. Further opera highlights include Turandot and West Side Story. Following his debut in 2015, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma where he performed complete cycles of the symphonies by Beethoven and Brahms in a position he held until 2020. As Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, he appeared at the BBC Proms in 2022 and established a critically-acclaimed Tchaikovsky cycle with Chandos Records: “Spell-binding Tchaikovsky packs an emotional punch” (BBC Music Magazine)
A keen exponent of contemporary music and has performed works by composers including Thomas Adès, Anna Clyne, Sofia Gubaidulina, Zakir Hussain, Elena Kats-Chernin, Nicole Lizée, Jessie Montgomery, John Psathas, Steve Reich, Mark Simpson, and George Walker. Alpesh is also a patron of Young Sounds UK, a charity supporting talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds on their musical journeys. He has collaborated with ensembles including National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and symphony orchestras of the UK conservatoires. He was the conductor of the 2015 BBC ‘Ten Pieces’ film which brought the world of classical music into secondary schools across the UK and received a distinguished BAFTA award.
In 2022 Alpesh received an OBE in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year's Honours for Services to the Arts and was conferred an Honorary Fellow of the RNCM in 2024. In 2022 he received the Conductor Award from the Italian National Association of Music Critics for ‘Miglior Direttore’.
Representation
General management with Askonas Holt
AMC Artists (Italy)
Season Highlights
Video
- Playing
'Adagietto' from Mahler's Symphony No.5 - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Recorded live at Glasgow City Halls in September 2019 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its Associate Conductor Alpesh Chauhan. Please note that this recording is no longer available on BBC iPlayer. Credit: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Brahms: Symphony No. 3 – III. Poco allegretto – London Philharmonic Orchestra
Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 performed by Alpesh Chauhan and the London Philharmonic Orchestra Credit: London Philharmonic Orchestra
News
Press
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Hussain, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky
City Halls, GlasgowMar 2025Chauhan was a consummate ringmaster, deftly in control, inspiring slick communication between the starry trio and backline.
- Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx
- 16 March 2025
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven, Mahler
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UKMar 2025★ ★ ★ ★ Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 in F major "Pastoral" and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde inhabit very different natural worlds – one literal, one metaphorical – yet conductor Alpesh Chauhan managed to establish compelling connections between them[…] Without overdoing it, Chauhan brought to mind the obsessive use of motif in Beethoven’s Fifth, establishing a vivid sense of compositional continuity.
- Simon Cummings, bachtrack
- 07 March 2025
The Hallé: Strauss, Herz, Prokofiev
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UKFeb 2025★ ★ ★ ★ Alpesh Chauhan...directed the Hallé with lively charisma in this colourful programme. Strauss’ Don Juan had begun the evening with testosterone-laden swagger in its opening minutes. The more lyrical second theme, however, was notable for its glossy, Hollywood-style heavy string vibrato and luscious, unhurried wind solos[...] The symphony’s raucous last pages hurtled into the buffers with steam almost visible from the violas, concluding a hugely enjoyable performance.
- Rohan Shotton, bachtrack
- 28 February 2025
It was Don Juan whose challenge [Chauhan] took on, opening it at an exciting pace and as con brio as could be asked, and relaxing into lyrical tenderness for the intimate episodes implied in the music's story-telling[...] Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, the selling point of the concert's marketing line on account of its "triumphant" qualities, was given a reading that equally included its thoughtful aspect...the slow movement was both passionate and eloquently shaped, and the finale, with its chugging positivity built up to a shattering climax, had more depth to it than appeared at first - an insightful presentation.
- Robert Beale, theartsdesk
- 28 February 2025
BBC Philharmonic: Clyne, Shostakovich, Strauss
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UKNov 2024After a pause for breath, Strauss' Ein Heldenleben blew away the post-Stalin storm clouds with all the macho swagger one could hope for[...] The lusciously lavish orchestral writing was realised with a gleaming glow and the hero's battle with his critics was suitably monumental. Chauhan paced the dying light of the coda to perfection, the world-weary hero taking his leave from life with quietly stately dignity.
- Rohan Shotton, bachtrack
- 18 November 2024
In Chauhan's hands the hero's life story began with swagger and panache and rarely let up, measured out in clear and generous portions and the excitement under firm control. There was a palpable sense of struggle and of triumph over the "adversaries" in the end.[...] The end of the piece was rich, warm and lovely. Peace can, after all, be triumphant.
- Robert Beale, theartsdesk
- 18 November 2024
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Bruckner
Glasshouse, Gatesehead, UKMar 2024★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Chauhan conducted the opening of [Bruckner’s 9th Symphony] with a sense of shuddering darkness, but by the time they reached the slow movement, via a hammer-blow Scherzo, the musicians of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra had created a vision of magisterial transcendence.
- Simon Thompson, The Times
- 04 March 2024
Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice: Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Farrenc, Schumann
Teatro Malibran, Venice, ItalyJan 2025Brilliant, energetic, authoritative - as in his previous concerts at Teatro La Fenice - was the performance offered by the British conductor…who despite his young age, has already established himself on the international scene, thanks to his exceptional musical talent. Chauhan’s interpretative finesse was appreciated to its fullest in Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage [with the Orchestra dal Teatro La Fenice][…] The performance of [Schumann’s 3rd Symphony] was truly extraordinary, confirming the perfect symbiosis between the orchestra and the conductor, who were able to render, in particular, the richness of colours and emotional atmospheres contained within[…] Thunderous applause celebrated both conductor and orchestra at the end of the evening.
- Roberto Campanella, GBOPERA
- 27 January 2025
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Elgar, Liszt, Brahms
Lighthouse, Poole, UKApr 2025★ ★ ★ ★ ★ An evening of exceptional performances from Chauhan, Kolesnikov and the [Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra[...} .. and from [Elgar's In the South's] imperious opening bars, bravura and grandeur were vividly presented here with a fierce intensity, incisive brass and plush string tone adding to Chauhan’s richly conceived and detailed performance...Altogether, an involving and superbly compelling account with belligerent and elegiac elements perfectly reconciled[...] This account [of Brahms' 2nd Symphony] underlined the work’s sweeping lyricism, yet was not without muscular unrest, as if Liszt and even Elgar were looking over Chauhan’s shoulder. The opening movement was a clear-sighted conception, climaxes nicely integrated within a satisfying emotional trajectory. Cellos caught the ear in the noble Adagio, the movement’s fresh-air quality neatly etched, while the third movement was imbued with elfin gaiety and Viennese charm. From here it was headlong into a spirited Finale that was both light on its feet and authoritative. And with an intuitive grip on its cumulative momentum, Chauhan propelled the movement towards a grandstand finish, those pealing trombones ringing out magnificently.
- David Truslove, bachtrack
- 12 January 2024
Seattle Symphony Orchestra: Brahms, Bach, Lutoslawski
Benaroya Hall, S Mark Taper Auditorium, Seattle, USOct 2022It’s safe to say that Alpesh Chauhan, making his [Seattle Symphony Orchestra] debut at the podium, was a new discovery for most of those present. He led a program of Brahms and Lutosławski that remained gripping throughout and, at times, revelatory[…] To judge by the musicians’ responsiveness and rapt involvement throughout the evening, Chauhan was able to establish a rapport with the SSO that made it sound as if they had been performing together for some time…the collaboration with Hilary Hahn was a genuine partnership, conductor and soloist sharing a tendency to emphasize the sweeping grandeur and spaciousness of the first movement in particular[…] Chauhan reveled in [Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra’s] score’s contrasts between feather-light, misterioso whisperings and aggressive tutti driven by the brass. The rapturous applause that erupted prompted the conductor to single out every section of the orchestra for praise before taking his own bow.
- Thoms May, bachtrack
- 21 October 2022
