Alejo Pérez

A sure sense of style and the ability to fathom the complexity of each score with great attention to detail are what distinguish Alejo Pérez as a conductor. He has thus consistently secured a firm place for himself in the international opera and concert landscape.

In recent years he has repeatedly impressed at the Salzburg Festival (including Gounod's Faust with the Vienna Philharmonic), at the Teatro Colón (Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos), at the Semperoper Dresden and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The 2021/22 season awaits debuts at the Grand Théâtre de Genève with a new production of Prokofiev's War and Peace (Calixto Bieito) and at the Vienna State Opera (Carmen). His successful debut with Der Freischütz at Nikikai Opera in Tokyo in 2018 will also be followed there by a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten (Peter Konwitschny).

Since September 2019, Alejo Pérez has been shaping the sound culture of Opera Vlaanderen as its music director, which has received great international acclaim in recent years. He set strong accents with new productions of Pelléas et Mélisande (directed by Abramovic, Cherkaoui), Lohengrin (David Alden), Don Carlos (Johan Simons), and Schreker's Schmied von Gent (Ersan Mondtag). In 2021/22 he can be seen in Flanders with performances of Ariadne auf Naxos, Sciarrino's La nuova Euridice secondo Rilke, Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, and a new version of Alain Platel's C(h)oeurs.

Among the many international orchestras Alejo Pérez has conducted are the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Intercontemporain. A longstanding continuous collaboration connects him with the Opéra de Lyon (Pelléas et Mélisande, Die Gezeichneten, Raskatow's GerMania, From a House of the Dead) and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (La Cenerentola, The Nose, Lulu, The Fiery Angel). Alejo Pérez has also made guest appearances at important houses such as the Opéra de Bastille in Paris, the operas of Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig, the Norwegian National Opera, the Teatr Wielki Warsaw and La Monnaie de Munt in Brussels.

From 2009 to 2012, Alejo Pérez helped the Teatro Argentino de La Plata regain its splendor as music director with internationally acclaimed performances. At the Teatro Real Madrid, he was among the circle of artistically formative conductors in the Gerard Mortier era beginning in 2010, leading the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid in concerts with Plácido Domingo, Eva-Maria Westbroek, and Ian Bostridge, as well as in productions of Rienzi, Don Giovanni, Death in Venice, Golijov's Ainadamar, and Rihm's The Conquest of Mexico.

The polyglot Argentinean came to conducting via composing as a student in his hometown of Buenos Aires. Important stations were assistances with Peter Eötvös, with whom he also studied in Karlsruhe, with Michael Gielen as well as with Christoph von Dohnányi and the NDR Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted regularly.

In 2019 Alejo Pérez was awarded the Konex Platinum Award - one of Argentina's highest national honors - for his outstanding artistic achievements.