| Biography | Alpesh Chauhan is Assistant Conductor at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a role to which he was appointed in 2014 having previously been the orchestras first Conducting Fellow. Quickly rising to international prominence, the insight which Alpesh brings to the music is relished by orchestras and audiences alike, and his natural rapport with the players has resulted in him already establishing relationships with some of the major orchestras in the UK and Europe.
Alpeshs career to date includes engagements with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Kymi Sinfonietta, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini Parma, Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli Bari, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In May and June 2015 he stepped in for two live Radio 3 broadcasts with the BBC Scottish and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, both of which were received with great acclaim.
This season sees Alpesh make his début with the orchestras of Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Opéra National Lorraine, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Returns include Kymi Sinfonietta, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini Parma, BBC Scottish and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Alpesh will perform at the BBC Proms for the first time in 2016 conducting two Ten Pieces concerts with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra following on from the Ten Pieces Secondary film which he filmed with the orchestra in summer 2015. In November 2016 he will make his US début with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and in January 2017 his first appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, performing Strauss Death and Transfiguration and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with Benjamin Grosvenor.
By way of background, Alpesh was principal cellist at the CBSO Youth Orchestra which gave him the opportunity, as part of the Youth Orchestra Academy in 2007, to take conducting masterclasses. He joined the RNCM in 2008 to study the cello with Eduardo Vassallo before deciding to pursue the prestigious Masters Conducting Course, taught by Clark Rundell and Mark Heron. Alpesh has participated in masterclasses with Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko and Jac van Steen, been mentored by Andris Nelsons and Edward Gardner and has studied with conductors of renown including Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Regularly appearing in the media, Alpesh has been featured as a Rising Star in BBC Music Magazine, been interviewed on BBC Radio 4, guest blogged for Gramophone Magazine and was on the judging panel for the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2016. |