Alexander Mickelthwate
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Bio
German Conductor Alexander Mickelthwate is Music Director of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Recently he was named Music Director of California’s Bear Valley Music Festival.
Mr. Mickelthwate’s position as Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra ended in 17/18 whereupon he was named Music Director Emeritus. Appointed Music Director at Winnipeg in 2006, he played a pivotal role in the development of the orchestra, culminating in a highly successful and critically acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall in May 2014 as part of the Spring For Music Festival.
Alexander Mickelthwate began his career in North America as Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and then Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Essa-Pekka Salonen. He has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Milwaukee Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Toronto Symphony amongst others.
He gave his European debut was with the Hamburg Symphony in 2006. He has also conducted the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and NDR Hannover. Other notable performances include the Sao Paulo Symphony and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela. He made his Australian debut with the Adelaide and Tasmanian symphony orchestras where he recorded the Mozart piano concerti Nos. 7 and 10 with the Silber Garburg Duo.
Deeply rooted in his German heritage, Mr. Mickelthwate began his tenure in Winnipeg with an inventive Beethoven cycle, pairing these great symphonies with other revolutionary compositions. His interpretation of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 prompted the pianist Anton Kuerti to write a letter to the newspaper saying “I would like to call attention to the stunning performance heard after the intermission. To play Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with the passion, profundity, emotional intensity, subtlety and degree of perfection achieved by conductor Alexander Mickelthwate and the Winnipeg Symphony can only be called miraculous.”
He played an instrumental part in creating Sistema Winnipeg after guest conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and experiencing the life-changing power of the Sistema program in Venezuela for underprivileged children. For three years he created the critically acclaimed Indigenous Festival in Winnipeg. Passionate to connect with all cultures he created artistic collaborations between the First Nations and Western cultures that culminated in the performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Revueltas’ Les Noches de los Mayas with new choreographies of contemporary and First Nations dance. Already an international institution, Alexander Mickelthwate broadened the repertoire of Winnipeg New Music Festival forming many new collaborations and connecting with different audiences. As a result, the orchestra was chosen to perform at the Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall in 2014.
He has conducted contemporary repertoire by composers that include Glen Branca, Steve Reich, Georg Friedrich Haas, John Corigliano, John Tavener, Johann Johannsson, Christos Hatzis, Derek Charke, Vincent Ho, and Orjan Sandred. Some of Mr. Mickelthwate’s most creative projects have included a performance of movie director Guy Maddin’s Brand upon a Brain with narration by Isabella Rossellini and the workshop of Tesla, a new opera by movie director Jim Jarmusch and composer Phil Klein.
Mr. Mickelthwate has worked with artists that include Dame Evelyn Glennie, Dawn Upshaw, Plácido Domingo, Ben Heppner, Leila Josefowitz, James Ehnes, Janina Fialkowska, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Horatio Gutiérrez, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Sarah Chang amongst many others; and he worked very closely with composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, R. Murray Schafer, Steven Stucky, Gabriel Prokofiev, Unsuk Chin and Mason Bates.
Born and raised in Frankfurt Germany to a musical family, Alexander received his degree from the Peabody Institute of Music. He studied conducting under Fredric Prausnitz and Gustav Meier as well as with Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, Daniel Barenboim and Robert Spano at Tanglewood.
September 2022
Mr. Mickelthwate’s position as Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra ended in 17/18 whereupon he was named Music Director Emeritus. Appointed Music Director at Winnipeg in 2006, he played a pivotal role in the development of the orchestra, culminating in a highly successful and critically acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall in May 2014 as part of the Spring For Music Festival.
Alexander Mickelthwate began his career in North America as Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and then Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Essa-Pekka Salonen. He has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Milwaukee Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Toronto Symphony amongst others.
He gave his European debut was with the Hamburg Symphony in 2006. He has also conducted the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and NDR Hannover. Other notable performances include the Sao Paulo Symphony and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela. He made his Australian debut with the Adelaide and Tasmanian symphony orchestras where he recorded the Mozart piano concerti Nos. 7 and 10 with the Silber Garburg Duo.
Deeply rooted in his German heritage, Mr. Mickelthwate began his tenure in Winnipeg with an inventive Beethoven cycle, pairing these great symphonies with other revolutionary compositions. His interpretation of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 prompted the pianist Anton Kuerti to write a letter to the newspaper saying “I would like to call attention to the stunning performance heard after the intermission. To play Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with the passion, profundity, emotional intensity, subtlety and degree of perfection achieved by conductor Alexander Mickelthwate and the Winnipeg Symphony can only be called miraculous.”
He played an instrumental part in creating Sistema Winnipeg after guest conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and experiencing the life-changing power of the Sistema program in Venezuela for underprivileged children. For three years he created the critically acclaimed Indigenous Festival in Winnipeg. Passionate to connect with all cultures he created artistic collaborations between the First Nations and Western cultures that culminated in the performances of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Revueltas’ Les Noches de los Mayas with new choreographies of contemporary and First Nations dance. Already an international institution, Alexander Mickelthwate broadened the repertoire of Winnipeg New Music Festival forming many new collaborations and connecting with different audiences. As a result, the orchestra was chosen to perform at the Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall in 2014.
He has conducted contemporary repertoire by composers that include Glen Branca, Steve Reich, Georg Friedrich Haas, John Corigliano, John Tavener, Johann Johannsson, Christos Hatzis, Derek Charke, Vincent Ho, and Orjan Sandred. Some of Mr. Mickelthwate’s most creative projects have included a performance of movie director Guy Maddin’s Brand upon a Brain with narration by Isabella Rossellini and the workshop of Tesla, a new opera by movie director Jim Jarmusch and composer Phil Klein.
Mr. Mickelthwate has worked with artists that include Dame Evelyn Glennie, Dawn Upshaw, Plácido Domingo, Ben Heppner, Leila Josefowitz, James Ehnes, Janina Fialkowska, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Horatio Gutiérrez, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Sarah Chang amongst many others; and he worked very closely with composers Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, R. Murray Schafer, Steven Stucky, Gabriel Prokofiev, Unsuk Chin and Mason Bates.
Born and raised in Frankfurt Germany to a musical family, Alexander received his degree from the Peabody Institute of Music. He studied conducting under Fredric Prausnitz and Gustav Meier as well as with Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, Daniel Barenboim and Robert Spano at Tanglewood.
September 2022