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The Russian conductor, counter-tenor and organist, Alexander Seidel, studied church music, conductioing and solosingin at music scools and master-classes in Berlin, Köln, Zürich, Paris and New York (1993-2010).
Alexander Seidel is characterized by his great versatility: As a conductor for Baroque operas and oratorios, Vienna classical music and choral-symphonic works is recognized in the European Baroque scene. He is the Chorus Master at the Evangelical Reformed church in the district Höfe at Lake Zürich and Music Director of the St. Otmar Choir in St. Gallen. Every year he conducts highly acclaimed concerts with his choirs, renowned vocal soloists and Baroque orchestras. In addition, he directs a master-class every summer during the music course weeks of the festival Arosa Kultur, where he conducts Henry Purcell's opera Dido & Aeneas in 2019.
In 1995 Alexander Seidel founded the New Sagittarius Consort Zürich, with which he worked on over fifty concert projects and partly performed at international festivals. Hospitals and assistants brought him together with Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, William Christie, Sir Roger Norrington and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He refined his conducting technique in master-classes with Kurt Masur, Colin Metters and René Jacobs.
Alexander Seidel has conducted concerts with musicians from the Staatskapelle Berlin, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester-Berlin, Sinfonieorchester Basel, St.Gallen Kammersolisten, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Baroque Orchestras Stella Matutina Feldkirch, Ensemble Musica Poetica Freiburg, La Folia Dresden and La Scintilla of the Zürich Opera House. From 2019 onwards he performs regularly with the Baroque ensemble Anima Mea.
Alexander Seidel has worked as a counter-tenor in numerous opera and theater productions - most recently at the Theater Basel - and has sung numerous solo concertos with works by Antonio Caldara, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert and Antonin Dvorak. His repertoire ranges from early Baroque music to G.F. Handel, J.S. Bach and contemporary music. In 2018 he debuted at the Easter Festival Baden-Baden, together with Concerto Melante (member of the Berliner Philharmonikers and guests), with music by J.S. Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann in the master concerts. The British composer Thomas Adés composed the cycle Love in Winter for him. The German composer Manfred Schlenker dedicated a cycle of biblical duets based on Dvorak's Biblische Lieder. In 2016, the Swiss Frederic Bolli composed the first full-length German-language song cycle for counter-tenor and piano Flea Market of Dreams and 2017 Louizes Labès sonnets for counter-tenor and lute. Both cycles were premiered by Alexander Seidel.
Alexander Seidel is the organist at the Evangelical Reformed church in the district Höfe at Lake Zürich and gave solo concerts u.a. in St. Petersburg, Berlin and Potsdam, as well as throughout Switzerland. He played on many historical instruments in Europe. His improvisational art was praised by the press as "Simply brilliant" (Märkische Allgemeine).
In 2017 a G.P. Telemann CD was released on the label Deutsche Harmonia Mundi with the Concerto Melante. |
