Alex Prior

Alex Prior (born in 1992 in London, England) is a music composer and conductor.

Biography

Prior is the great-great grandson of actor and director Konstantin Stanislavsky. He was one of the youngest students in the history of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He has written over 40 pieces of music, including full symphonies, sonatas and jazz suites.

He was born in London to a Russian mother and a British father and started composing at the age of eight. He wrote the score and conducted the debut performance of his own ballet "Mowgli", based on The Jungle Book, at the New Opera in Moscow on 19 June, 2007 as part of the Moscow Summer Ballet Festival. The Moscow Times said of the performance, "Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyev both loved Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" as children. So when, decades later, they decided to choreograph a ballet based on the story, they turned to a composer who could vividly feel the book's enchantment: a child. Of course, composer Alex Prior is no ordinary 15-year-old boy. As one of the youngest students in the history of St. Petersburg's Conservatory, he has written over 40 pieces of music, including full symphonies, sonatas and jazz suites. Born in London to a Russian mother and a British father, he started composing at the age of 8, but his penchant for music became clear when he was just a toddler."cite news |title=Ballet Debut |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/06/15/108.html |publisher=Moscow Times |date= 2007-06-15 |accessdate=2007-06-21 ] And The Guardian staed that, "A British schoolboy is to conduct a performance of his own music for a ballet at Moscow's prestigious New Opera tonight. Alex Prior, 15, has written a score based on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, for a full orchestra. Obsessed with music since the age of three, Alex has already laid claim to being the youngest ever conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London."cite news |title=British teenager scores Russian ballet coup |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2106556,00.html |publisher=The Guardian |date=2007-06-19 |accessdate=2007-06-21 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.alexprior.co.uk/ Homepage]
* [http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/10908 The World: Child prodigy composes ballet]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6768991.stm UK teen conducts Moscow ballet]
* [http://www.classicalx.com/Alex_Prior.html Alex Prior on classicalx.com]