“In 2017 a tall, gangly, flamboyant 24-year-old, colorfully dressed and with a tussle of disheveled hair, first took to the podium as Chief Conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra,” writes Mark Morris in Tuesday’s (5/24) Edmonton Journal (Canada). Alexander Prior “has in many ways transformed the orchestra and its audiences…. Now at the end of his five-year contract, he is leaving the orchestra for the German city of Erfurt, where [beginning in October] he will be the Music Director of the distinguished Theater Erfurt opera company and of the associated Erfurt Philharmonic. He leaves behind a considerable legacy. First and foremost, he has brought the orchestra to a new level of playing…. Prior has … championed two favorite Scandinavian composers … Sibelius and Nielsen … [Prior also introduced] composers from a wide range of diversity. That culminated in the stunning and enthusiastically received concert of works by women composers last month. Prior … has embraced Alberta, something that audiences have strongly responded to. He discovered country music … but more important, he made Edmonton his home… [The U.K. native] now has Permanent Resident status in Canada…. He will conduct his ESO season’s final two concerts” in June.
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