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.