Alejo Pérez

It would be wonderful to attend the performance twice and the second time around only look with one’s ears. The music under the Argentine conductor Alejo Pérez [...] was performed with intensity of the highest order. Jürgen Kesting, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

As a conductor, Alejo Pérez possesses an inherent stylistic awareness and the ability to bring every detail of the most complex score to life. This has consistently secured him a firm place on the international opera and concert scene. 

In his role as music director, Alejo Pérez has been forming the sonic identity of the Flemish Opera since September 2019 - a theatre which has received much international recognition in recent years. There, he made strong appearances in new productions of Pelléas et Mélisande (directed by Abramovich, Cherkaoui), Lohengrin (David Alden), Don Carlos (Johan Simons), Schreker’s Schmied von Gent (Ersan Mondtag) and C(h)oeurs 2022 by Alain Platel. During the Flemish Opera’s 2022/23 season he will conduct new productions of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Ivo van Hove) and Tristan and Isolde (Philippe Grandrieux), as well as such symphonic masterpieces as Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9.

In recent years, the conductor has appeared to great acclaim at the Salzburg Festival (including a performance of Gounod’s Faust with the Vienna Philharmonic), at the Teatro Colón (Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos), at the Semperoper Dresden, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Highlights of the 2022/23 season include his debut at the New National Theatre Tokyo with Tannhäuser and his return to the Wiener Staatsoper (Werther) and the Staatsoper Stuttgart (Werther). Following his successful debüt with War and Peace in September 2021, he will continue his collaboration with Grand Théâtre de Genève and Calixto Bieito for a new production of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

Alejo Pérez has been a guest with numerous internationally renowned orchestras, such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Ensemble Intercontemporain. He also enjoys longstanding working relationships with the Opéra de Lyon (Pelléas et Mélisande, The Stigmatized, GerMANIA, From the House of the Dead), and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (La Cenerentola, The Nose, Lulu, The Fiery Angel). In addition, engagements have taken him to the Tokyo Nikikai Opera, Opéra de Bastille, the Cologne, Frankfurt, and Leipzig Operas, Norwegian National Opera, Teatr Wielki Warsaw, and La Monnaie de Munt.

Between 2009 and 2012 Alejo Pérez served as music director of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, to which he brought a new lease of life with internationally acclaimed performances. From 2010, he was one of the main conductors at the Teatro Real Madrid in the era of Gerard Mortier, closely working with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid for concerts with Plácido Domingo, Eva-Maria Westbroek, and Ian Bostridge, and celebrated productions of Rienzi, Don Giovanni, Death in Venice, Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico.

The polyglot Argentinian studied both composition and conducting in addition to piano in his native Buenos Aires, and later in Karlsruhe with Peter Eötvös. Formative periods at the start of his conducting career included assisting Peter Eötvös, Michael Gielen, as well as Christoph von Dohnányi at the NDR Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Alejo Pérez was awarded the Konex Platinum Award for his artistic achievements – one of the highest honours in his home country Argentina.

2022/23 season

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