Alexis Hauser

Austrian conductor Alexis Hauser was born in Vienna and graduated with distinction from Hans Swarowsky's masterclass 1970 (Vienna Musikuniversität) as well as from mastercourses with Franco Ferrara (Accademia Chigiana Siena 1969) and Herbert von Karajan (Salzburg Sommerakademie 1970). His conducting debut took place with the Vienna Symphony in 1973 whereupon Seiji Ozawa invited him to Tanglewood in 1974. There he received the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship and has been awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize by the Boston Symphony. He made his US debut as guest conductor with the Atlanta Symphony and at the New York City Opera in 1975. Since then Hauser’s international guest conducting schedule includes some of the world’s renown orchestras, such as Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Radio Philharmonic Hilversum, Radio Symphony Berlin, South West German Radio Symphony, Tchaikovsky Symphony Moscow (with whom he recorded Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony), Orchestre National Toulouse; Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Czech Philharmonic Brno, Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest, Budapest Symphony, the Philharmonics of Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Kraków as well as the major symphonies in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minnesota, Rochester, Montreal, Toronto and Mexico City; Hauser also conducted at Chicago's Grant Park Festival, Washington Opera, Opera Midwest Chicago, and in Finland, Norway and Iceland. Recently he made his Swiss conducting debut with the Zürich Opera House in the world premiere of the Opera “Kalkül” by Werner Schulze (music) and Carl Djerassi (libretto).

His first permanent position as Music Director came from Orchestra London Canada (1981–88) with which he toured to Italy’s L’Aquila Festival in 1982, recorded regularly for CBC and arranged an international Mahler Symposium in 1986 with performances of Mahler’s 8th Symphony. As principal guest conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic (1991–95) he made several recordings and a video of Mahler's Symphony Nr.1 which was transmitted throughout Europe. As Music Director of the KCM Orchestra Tokyo (1995 - 2000) he recorded Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and performed in Tokyo’s most prestigious auditoriums Suntory Hall and Bunka Kaikan. From 1992 until 1997 he served as Principal Conductor of the Romanian Mozart Festival: high points included the television premiere of Mozart’s Requiem in the completion of Robert Levin and performances of La clemenza di Tito. In Austria he served as Principal Conductor of the contemporary Music Festival Niederösterreich International, and since 1999 he is closely associated with the Ensemble Wiener Collage, composed of members of the Vienna Philharmonic, which he conducts at the Vienna Arnold Schönberg Center.

Hauser has performed with many world renown artists in opera and concert; the list includes, among others: Stefan Askenase, Rudolf Buchbinder, Jane Eaglen, Philippe Entremont, Maureen Forrester, Ida Haendel, Jerry Hadley, Young-Uck Kim, Anton Kuerti, Itzhak Perlman, Dmitri Pittas, Leonard Rose, Joseph Rouleau, Michael Schade and Alan Titus.

Hauser’s special interest in working with young musicians and conductors led to guest professorships/master classes in Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music in New York; the Music University Graz, Austria; and the Kunitachi Music University in Tokyo, Japan.

As Director of the McGill Symphony Orchestra Montreal he received already after his inaugural season 2001/2 invitations to appear at the International Festival of Lanaudiere and also in New York at Carnegie Hall. The Montreal Gazette praised Hauser's performance of Verdi's Falstaff as a revelation and listed his interpretation of Mahler's Tenth Symphony (which was released meanwhile in public by McGill Records) as one of the top 10 of 2002 Classical Music Performances. In 2004, Hauser performed the Canadian premiere of the original version of Mahler's Das klagende Lied. In 2005 he revived, together with Stage Director François Racine, Harry Somer’s Opera Louis Riel in an Opera McGill production at Montreal’s Place des Arts, which was awarded the Prix Opus “Événement musical de l’année” by the Conseil québécois de la musique. Recently, Hauser’s new CD album combining Messiaen's L'Ascension with Mahler's “Resurrection” - Symphony has been released.

In March 2011 he conducted the Canadian Premiere of Pierre Boulez' Notations pour orchestre I - IV & VII. In March 2012, this was followed by the Pan-American premiere of Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha's Sinfonie (1975). Highlights of Hauser’s current season 2012/13 include performances and Video recordings of Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" - Symphony in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its world premiere; a recording of Claude Vivier's “Orion” for Naxos Records; a publication of a new CD of Mahler's Symphony No. 3; and special events for Wagner and Verdi, celebrating their 200th anniversaries.