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"Thanks to the thrilling music-making of Alexandre Bloch, the French wunderkind of the conducting world, the diverse programme of Messiaen, Haydn, and Schubert showed off the orchestra at its very best."
"Still, close your eyes while Alexandre Bloch’s Orchestre National de Lille are playing Ravel and you’re struck by the polish, the elegance of the playing. Open them and marvel at how Bloch’s dance-like podium manner is matched by the musicians’ fluid movements."
French conductor Alexandre Bloch attracted international attention winning first prize at the 2012 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and has since maintained a close relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra. Admired for his musicality, enthusiasm and energy, he made his acclaimed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut, replacing Mariss Jansons on short notice, not too long after.
Recent and upcoming guest engagements include Philharmonia Orchestra in May 2024 (stepping in for Santtu Matias Rouvali), Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, the Hallé Manchester, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, a tour with the European Union Youth Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, George Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Australian Youth Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Oslo Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre National de France, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, NCPA (Beijing) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Equally at home in opera, Bloch has appeared with the Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), where he returns for two productions in 2024-25, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra de Lille, and Opéra de Lyon.
Bloch was Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lille from 2016-2024, a tenure that inspired artistic and community growth. He programmed and explored a diverse, thrilling range of repertoire – a full Mahler cycle, most of the Stravinsky ballets, the large-scale French and German symphonies, as well as the intimate chamber forced canon of the classical masters Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Schumann. An advocate of new music, Bloch invited today’s most exciting composers, such as Magnus Lindberg, George Benjamin and Thierry Escaich, to be the Artists-in-Residence or featured in festivals. An innovator on and off the podium, he initiated special projects attracting new audiences into the concert hall with lyrical programs Bernstein’s Mass, Carmen, Tosca, les Pêcheurs de Perles, la Belle Hélène, Bohème, young audience concerts, and 2.0 concert formats. Under Bloch’s direction, the Orchestre National de Lille was nominated for a “2020 Gramophone Award: Orchestra of the Year” and has been featured extensively on different labels and broadcast channels such as Alpha Classics/Outhere, Pentatone, Mezzo TV, France Musique Radio.
He has collaborated with many internationally established soloists such as Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Patricia Kopacinskaja, Mischa Maisky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Sol Gabetta, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Steven Isserlis, Sharon Kam, Alice Sara-Ott, Nemanja Radulovic, Veronika Eberle, Veronique Gens, and Xavier Demaîstre.
Former Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Bloch was an ADAMI emerging talent and a Tanglewood Conducting Fellow, drawing the attention of mentors such as Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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