Conductor and Composer Alex Prior (b. 1992) brings over 19 years of international and critically acclaimed experience to his appointment as Music Director-designate of the Eugene Symphony. His tenure with the Eugene Symphony will begin in fall, 2025. Alex has earned a reputation since early childhood for his profound and visionary music making which he has had the opportunity to share with some of the world’s greatest soloists, orchestras, and opera companies.
Alex began his post-secondary studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 13 with a dual major in conducting with Alexander Alexeev and composition with Boris Tishchenko. He made his professional conducting debut at 14, conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and graduated with top honors at the age of 17 - a feat only matched by Sergei Prokofiev. Immediately thereafter he was appointed by the Seattle Symphony as an Assistant Conductor.
In 2017, Alex became the Chief Conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at just 22 years of age, the youngest artistic leader of a major North American orchestra in modern history. His tenure was widely hailed as an era of extraordinary artistic excellence and growth. Alex cherished his time in Edmonton, and with his characteristic and earnest neurodivergent enthusiasm he fully embraced Alberta, and still considers himself to be, at least in large part, a proud Albertan.
Alex Prior, Music Director Designate
Hear what board and community members had to say about Alex and meet Alex in this video.
His legacy in Edmonton includes the orchestra’s first recordings in over 30 years which have now had many millions of views and streams, the orchestra’s first commissions, and numerous Canadian premiers - including of such prominent composers as Jean Sibelius, Anton Bruckner, Galina Ustvolskaya, John Adams, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Recent engagement highlights include performances with the San Francisco, Detroit, Queensland, and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Symphony Hamburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Calgary Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid (the orchestra of the Teatro Reál), and the Brevard Festival Orchestra, amongst numerous others.
A dedicated opera lover since early childhood, Alex also has had many successful operatic engagements including Martinu’s Mirandolina at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Verdi’s La Traviata at Oper Leipzig, Bizet’s Carmen at the Royal Danish opera, Dvorak’s Rusalka at the Tiroler Festspiele, Verdi’s Rigoletto at Staatstheater Braunschweig and Oper Frankfurt, Martinu’s Julietta at Oper Frankfurt, Richard Strauss’s Elektra at Theater Erfurt and Edmonton Opera, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel with Vancouver Opera, Weingartner’s Orestes at Theater Erfurt, and Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer at Theater Erfurt amongst many others. He is consistently lauded for creating a rich, dramatic, and dark orchestral sound in opera whilst always maintaining advocacy for the singers.
Prior is also known for his compositions and arrangements. His ballet, Mowgli commissioned by the Russian State Ballet, was performed for the first time in 2008 andit has been continuously running and touring since then, with most recent performances in Amsterdam. His music has been performed by worldwide orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Edmonton Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, and the BBC Singers.
As a conductor, Prior has a broad repertoire, but with a special focus on and passion for American music, especially the music of Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Gabriella Smith, and John Adams as well as German, Russian, Czech, and Nordic composers. If asked to name a few of his favorite composers to conduct he might have told the writer to be sure to not exclude Wagner, Bruckner, Adams, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Goubaidulina, Saariaho, Schnittke, Janáček, Dvořák, Ustvolskaya, Carl Nielsen, Rued Langgaard, Vaughan Williams, and Richard Strauss as well as Corb Lund, Eminem, Blake Shelton, Conway Twitty and Paul Brandt to name only a few.
Alex has also been a champion of music by younger living composers and is particularly passionate about performing new composers - especially the music of Nicole Lizée, Gabriella Smith, Tanya Tagaq, Vivian Fung, Missy Mazzoli, and Alissa Cheung. He passionately believes in the power of music to bring people of all backgrounds together, and to build compassion and ultimately a better understanding of our mutual humanity.
Alex plans to relocate to Eugene when his tenure with the Eugene Symphony begins, in fall, 2025.