Versatile Young Conductor
The Argentinian Alejo Pérez is one of the most promising conductors of the younger generation. In his home country, he regularly works with the leading orchestras, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional Argentina.
Born in Buenos Aires, Alejo discovered music as an autodidact and was at first primarily interested in composing. He started to take piano lessons at the Conservatory and eventually studied composition, conducting and piano at the University of Buenos Aires. In addition, he took a composition course with Franco Donatoni. After having graduated, he founded – initially out of his interest in new compositions – the Ensemble XXI. In 1999, his opera Tenebrae, a commission from the Experimental Centre of the Teatro Colón, was premiered in Buenos Aires.
Alejo Pérez moved to Germany for postgraduate studies at the Conservatory Karlsruhe, funded by a DAAD grant. In 2003, he was second prize-winner at the conducting competition of the German conservatories. He received various grants, amongst others from Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and Richard Wagner Stiftung.
Alejo Pérez has worked in close collaboration with his former teacher, Peter Eötvös, and premiered two operas as Eötvös’ assistant: Angels in America (Théâtre du Châtelet Paris) and Lady Sarashina (Opéra de Lyon, Opéra Comique Paris). Pérez also worked as assistant for Bernhard Kontarsky, Michael Levinas and Michael Gielen. At Opera Bastille in Paris, he conducted Matthias Pintscher’s opera L’espace dernier. In April 2005, he led a new production of Hans Werner Henze’s opera Pollicino at the Opera National de Lyon.
During the last two seasons, Alejo Pérez was Assistant Conductor to Christoph von Dohnanyi at the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg. His conducting debut with this Orchestra took place in January 2006 during the “NDR Mozart-Nacht” and subsequently, he conducted several successful concerts in the NDR’s contemporary music series. In the season of 2006/2007, Alejo Pérez made his debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in a programme of works by Mozart, Wagner and Henze, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Chile. Highlights of the season 2007/2008 included performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Frankfurt Opera, of Eötvös’ Lady Sarashina at Opéra National de Lyon, Maderna’s Satyricon and Xenakis’s Oresteia at Teatro Colón as well as a concert with the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.
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