Alexander Shelley

The twenty-seven year old English conductor Alexander Shelley is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most creative musical talents of his generation.

Unanimously awarded first prize in the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, Shelley was described in the press as "the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award. His conducting technique is immaculate, everything crystal clear and a tool to his inborn musicality."

In 2001 Shelley founded the Schumann Camerata in Dusseldorf. He has now conducted this young chamber orchestra in over 80 concerts both in Germany and abroad including a high-profile tour of 11 Russian cities culminating in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire in 2004. With the Camerata next season he presents the second edition of "440Hz", a series of concerts involving prominent German television and stage personalities, in a major initiative to attract young adults to the concert hall. For more details please click here.

Recent highlights include a similar project with the Copenhagen Philharmonic at the Tivoli Festival, his appointment as Dance4 Life Ambassador for Germany and related performances with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. This season he continues to work regularly in the UK with orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and London Mozart Players. Engagements abroad include Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra di Roma e del Lazio.

Summer 2007 features a second visit to the BBC Proms with the Britten Sinfonia and an appearance at the inaugural Manchester International Festival performing a new orchestral commission by William Orbit with the BBC Philharmonic. He will also appear again at the Tivoli Festival and with the Deutschekammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Further ahead Alexander Shelley will debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Odense Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In March 2008 he makes his professional opera debut with Royal Danish Opera conducting The Merry Widow.

To see an audio/visual clip of Alexander Shelley's conducting, please click here.