Conductor Alpesh Chauhan is to join Birmingham Opera Company as music director from 1 July 2020 and with artistic director Graham Vick will lead the company on its mission “to make great opera for all the people of Birmingham”.
Highlights of Birmingham-born Chauhan’s career include a subscription concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic and a production of Puccini’s Turandot in Valencia at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
For the past five years, he has worked with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma which awarded him the title of principal conductor and with whom he has performed and recorded a complete cycle of Brahms’s symphonies.
Chauhan made his UK opera debut in 2019 with Birmingham Opera Company and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, directed by Vick, which won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
Vick said, “from the word go it was clear to me that Alpesh not only was an outstanding conductor with great theatrical flair but also had a profound empathy for the company. As the need for the company’s values becomes ever more urgent, I’m thrilled that he’s agreed to join me at the helm.”
Chauhan added, “it’s a huge privilege for me to take up the post of music director at the Birmingham Opera Company. I’m particularly excited to work more alongside Graham Vick—one of the world’s greatest opera directors.
“It’ll be an honour to stand at the front of this special organisation. I’m especially delighted to be a part of an organisation such as BOC which constantly thinks outside the box with its totally immersive performances, successfully broadening the opera audience.”