Alpesh Chauhan OBE
British conductor Alpesh Chauhan is Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company.
Forthcoming 24/25 season highlights includes debuts with Stavanger, Detroit and Vancouver Symphonies, Orchestre National de Belgique, PhilZuid and Orchestre de Auvergne including at the Evian Festival. He returns to the Oslo Philharmonic, City of Birmingham, Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, BBC Scottish, BBC Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and Orchestra della Fenice. With his Düsseldorf orchestra, he conducts Das Lied von der Erde as well as opening their new season with Korngold’s Symphony.
Recent guest conducting projects also include with Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, West Australian Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Toronto Symphony, London Philharmonic and Malmö Symphony. He also recently programmed Schumann’s Konzertstück with Odense Symphony and four horns of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Other regular soloists include Hilary Hahn, Pablo Ferrández and Sir Stephen Hough.
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.
Chauhan is particularly well-known for his interpretations of the late Romantic and twentieth century repertoire – with 2024 including Bruckner’s 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies within the anniversary year. He also champions contemporary composers such as Thomas Adès, Anna Clyne, Chaya Czernowin, Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Zakir Hussain, Nicole Lizée, Jessie Montgomery, John Psathas, Steve Reich, Mark Simpson, and George Walker.
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 the field of Opera, alongside the recently critically acclaimed productions of New Year and Rheingold, other notable opera titles include Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, West Side Story, and productions of Turandot, including at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia.
A keen advocate of music education for young people, Alpesh is a patron of Awards for Young Musicians, a UK charity supporting talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds on their musical journeys. He has also worked with ensembles such as the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the symphony orchestras of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Northern College of Music. 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.
Former Associate Conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony - with whom he 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)
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’.
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