Alexander Briger AO
conductor
“Brilliantly conducted by Janáček specialist Alexander Briger, he is the star of the show, masterfully guiding time-shifting minefields with his assured baton.” John Terrauds / Toronto Star
Australian conductor Alexander Briger is one of Australia’s preeminent musicians and was honoured in the 2016 Australia Day Honours List as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished services to the arts as a leading conductor.”
Alexander founded the Australian World Orchestra in 2010, of which he is the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. In 2011, he conducted their inaugural season at the Sydney Opera House with Beethoven's Symphony No.9, which was subsequently released on Deutsche Grammophone, as well as leading the orchestra on their Asia tours to Singapore in 2016 and India in 2018.
Recent engagements have included performances of Stravinsky’s Petrouschka and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Opéra de Toulon, Jay Reise’s Rasputin for the Helikon Opera in Moscow, concerts with the Orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and John Adams’ I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, following a successful debut at the same theatre conducting the Paris premiere of Adams’ Nixon in China.
He has performed regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London (collaborating with such soloists as Alfred Brendel, Maria João Pires and Murray Perahia) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, including their tour to China in 2004, and made his BBC Proms and Berlin Festival debuts with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Edinburgh Festival debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
In 2024, Alexander led critically acclaimed performances of Mahler’s Symphony No.9 in Sydney and Melbourne with the Australian World Orchestra, made his debuts with the Milan Symphony Orchestra and conducted performances with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in Munich to mark the 2-year anniversary of the start of war.
Alexander has worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble InterContemporain, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester, Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, Belgium National Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Japanese Virtuoso Symphony, all the major Australian symphony orchestras and with the London Sinfonietta (collaborating with Peter Sellars and pianist Hélène Grimaud for the premiere of Arvo Pärt’s Lament Tate), among many others.
Alexander’s other operatic conducting engagements include the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Canadian Opera Company, Royal Danish Opera, Royal Swedish Opera and Opera Australia.
Representation: Australia / New Zealand
Felsner Artists: Europe / USA
Alexander’s Personal Site