Alpesh Chauhan is Principal Conductor of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, a post he took up in autumn 2017. Quickly rising to international prominence, highlights of his career to date include conducting at the BBC Proms and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, his German symphony orchestra debut with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, a production of Turandot at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and frequent appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where until 2016 he was Assistant Conductor.
Alpesh continues to place the great symphonic tradition centre-stage with the Filarmonica Toscanini in 2018/19, programming core orchestral repertoire such as Bruckner’s 7th and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” symphonies as well as embarking on a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies which will conclude in the subsequent season. This follows a successful first season in the post during which he presented Brahms’ four symphonies as part of the annual Arturo Toscanini celebrations. A recording of the acclaimed performances, which took place in January 2018, will be broadcast on Classic FM this October.
Other highlights in 2018/19 include Alpesh’s Spanish and Swedish debuts, conducting Turandot at Palau de les Arts Valencia and Bruckner’s Symphony No 6 with Malmö Symphony Orchestra, as well as debut performances with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI. The season also sees him return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy, and the Orkest van het Oosten.
A regular guest with major orchestras including the Orchestre National d’Île de France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Alpesh also enjoys collaborations with distinguished soloists such as Nicola Benedetti, Pablo Ferrandez, Benjamin Grosvenor, Stephen Hough, Leila Josefowicz, Pavel Kolesnikov, Johannes Moser, Alice Sara Ott, Arcadi Volodos, and singers Marco Berti, Christianne Stotijn and Jennifer Wilson, to name a few.
Regularly appearing in the media, Alpesh has been featured in extensive articles in The Times, BBC and Classical Music Magazines as well as Italy’s La Repubblica, Amadeus and Musica, guest blogged for Gramophone, and written about the significance of music education in Music Teacher magazine. He has presented an edition of BBC Radio 3’s Inside Music and has been interviewed on Italian national TV, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4, and Radio Klara Belgium. He was appointed to the judging panels for the 2016 and 2018 editions of BBC Young Musician of the Year.
At home in Birmingham, Alpesh was Principal Cellist with 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 Royal Northern College of Music in 2008 to study the cello with Eduardo Vassallo before deciding to pursue the prestigious Master’s Conducting Course, taught by Clark Rundell and Mark Heron. Alpesh has studied with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, participated in masterclasses with Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko and Jac van Steen, and has been mentored by Andris Nelsons and Edward Gardner.