Alex Prior - Life and Career

Life and Career

Prior was born in London to a British father and a Russian mother who descended from Constantin Stanislavski. Prior began composing at the age of eight and has written more than 40 works, including symphonies, concertos, two ballets, two operas, and a Requiem for the children of Beslan. At an early age, he began piano lessons. He later enrolled in the junior department of the Royal College of Music. At 13, he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory where, beginning in his third year, he studied composition with Boris Tishchenko and opera and symphonic conducting with Alexander Alexeev (a pupil of Hans Swarowsky). In 2009, at age 17, he graduated with Distinction two Masters-Degrees in Symphonic and Operatic Conducting, and in Composition from the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Prior has collaborated with many leading orchestras and ensembles, including The BBC Singers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Opera Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, and the ensemble Endymion. Highlights include a performance of his Sonata for Cello and Piano at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and a symphonic poem, Stalin's March, as part of the Arts Council-funded New Music Day with the City of London Sinfonia. Other performances include The Prince's Feast with Prior conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of London at the Barbican Centre and the premiere of Svyatogor's Quest by the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio at Wigmore Hall. In Autumn 2008, following performances in St. Petersburg, the Rossica Choir toured the UK, featuring Prior's choral cycle Sounds of the Homeland and parts of his All Night Vigil.