Alpesh Chauhan OBE
British conductor Alpesh Chauhan is Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company.
Equally praised for his ‘exceptional musical talent’ (GB Opera) and his ‘lithe, expressive and bold conducting style’ (Seen & Heard), Alpesh has firmly established himself on the international stage. He works regularly with orchestras including City of Birmingham Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Phil Zuid, Orchestre National de Belgique, Vancouver Symphony & National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Further recent highlights include Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony of Washington, Toronto Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI Torino & London Philharmonic. Alpesh regularly collaborates with soloists including Karen Cargill, Sir Stephen Hough, Hilary Hahn, Johannes Moser, Pablo Ferrandez, Benjamin Grosvenor, Pavel Kolesnikov, Simone Lamsma and Simon Hofele.
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. He held this position until 2020. Alpesh has a longstanding relationship with BBC Scottish Symphony, with whom he was former Associate Conductor and appeared at the BBC Proms in 2022. He continues to appear regularly as a guest conductor and currently partners with them on a Tchaikovsky cycle with Chandos Records. Their first two albums were released to critical acclaim in 2023 and 2024: “Spell-binding Tchaikovsky packs an emotional punch” (BBC Music Magazine)
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 most recent Keith Warner production of Tippett’s New Year being praised for its "exemplary music-making" (The Guardian). Past productions include Rheingold 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.
Alpesh is widely renowned for his interpretations of late Romantic and twentieth century repertoire. Repertoire highlights of the season include Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with both City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra & Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, alongside Karen Cargill & Simon O’Neill, as well as performances of Bruckner’s late symphonies to coincide with the anniversary year. He is a keen exponent of contemporary music and has performed works by composers including Thomas Adès, Anna Clyne, Chaya Czernowin, Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Zakir Hussain, Elena Kats-Chernin, Nicole Lizée, Jessie Montgomery, John Psathas, Steve Reich, Mark Simpson, and George Walker.
A keen advocate of music education for young people, Alpesh is 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.
Born in Birmingham, Alpesh studied ‘cello at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before continuing at the RNCM to pursue the prestigious Master’s Conducting Course. Alpesh received an OBE in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 2022 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’.
This biography should not be edited without permission from Askonas Holt.
