Alexander
Soddy Repetiteur
The
British pianist and conductor, Alexander Soddy, has already developed
a reputation as a musician of distinction. Born in Oxford in December
1982, he was educated as a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, and
at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied conducting and singing,
and was a piano pupil of Michael Dussek. A choral scholarship, studying
musicology, at Cambridge University followed. After graduating in 2004,
he was immediately appointed as repetiteur and conductor at the National
Opera Studio in London. Awards and prizes include support from the Friends
of Covent Garden (Royal Opera House), the Scottish Opera Endowment Trust,
the Selwyn College Roe Prize, and the Sir Henry Richardson Award for
piano accompaniment.
As an accompanist, Alex has performed in venues across
the UK and Europe, including London’s Wigmore Hall, The Academy
of St.Martin in the Fields and the Presteigne festival. He has worked
as a repetiteur for a number of opera companies in the UK including
English National Opera, English Touring Opera and the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden. He conducted the UK premiere of Mosolov’s Der Held
at Cambridge as well as a critically acclaimed production of Britten’s
The Rape of Lucretia. Other repertory includes Mahler’s Lieder
eines fahrenden Gesellen, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 (‘New
World’), Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 (‘Linz’),
and Schubert’s Symphony No.4 (‘Tragic’). He was Paul
Kildea’s assistant for the complete Mahler song cycles with Ann
Murray at the Wigmore Hall, and on Britten’s Albert Herring at
Snape. He has been Simone Young’s assistant on Britten’s
War Requiem at Snape Maltings and Peter Grimes at the Vienna Staatsoper
and in October 2005 joined the staff of the Hamburg Staatsoper as a
repetiteur. He has been a regular assistant to Young at the Staatsoper
and with the Hamburger Philharmoniker. In that time he has played and
assisted on over 30 operas, working with and coaching such singers as
Lisa Gasteen, Deborah Polaski, Bernadette Cullen, Placido Domingo, John
Treleaven, Franz Grundheber and Teddy Tahu Rhodes, and directors such
as Keith Warner and Simon Philips.
In 2006
he conducted Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Brighton Early
Music Festival in the UK, with players from the Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment. He recently assisted Young on a Symphony Australia
tour, working with the West Australian Symphony and Sydney Symphony
orchestras. Work included a recording with Lisa Gasteen and WASO and
Messaien’s Turangalila with both orchestras. He continues to assist
Young in the following season, on projects including Mahler’s
Resurrection Symphony with the London Philharmonic in the Royal Festival
Hall and Concertgebouw and on the Hamburg State Opera’s new Ring
Cycle with Das Rheingold. Future conducting plans include Tchaichovsky’s
Symphony No.4 with the Landesjugendorchester Hamburg in the city’s
Laiezhalle and the Hamburg State Opera Studio production of Cavalli’s
La Calisto.