Alexander Briger AO: Bringing it home

Conductor Alexander Briger has built an extraordinary international career, working with orchestras and opera companies across Europe and Australia, while also creating one of this country’s most ambitious musical projects: the Australian World Orchestra. As the AWO celebrates 15 years, Alexander reflects on how an idea originally intended as a one-off became an ongoing orchestra bringing together leading Australian musicians from around the world, and discusses the upcoming concerts in Melbourne and Sydney .Alex also looks back on the beginnings of his own remarkable career, from hearing his uncle Sir Charles Mackerras conduct Mahler when he was 12 and immediately deciding to become a conductor, to leaving Australia for Europe in search of opportunities he simply couldn’t find at home. He recalls learning from Mackerras, Pierre Boulez and other great conductors, and the complex reality of carving out his own identity independent of his famous uncle. There are also some telling stories of the less glamorous side of an international conducting career, from having to learn major works at a day’s notice, to racing between countries and opera houses until the relentless pace eventually took its toll. He also reflects on what decades on the podium have taught him, including the importance of personality and instinct to great conducting.Alexander Briger conducts the Australian World Orchestra for Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony, Stravinsky’s Petrushka and a world premiere by Jonathan Mills, at Hamer Hall in Melbourne on Wednesday, 19 August and in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House on Thursday 20 August.