In recent years, conductor Alejo Pérez has received critical acclaim for his performances at the Salzburg Festival, Wiener Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, and Teatro Colón in works such as Faust, Werther, Katya Kabanova, Parsifal, Der Rosenkavalier, and Ariadne auf Naxos. In the 2024/25 season, he concludes the trilogy of War and Peace, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and now Khovanshchina at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in collaboration with Calixto Bieito. He also returns to Tokyo Nikikai Opera for a new production of Die Frau ohne Schatten directed by Peter Konwitschny, and to Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile for The Flying Dutchman staged by Marcelo Lombardero. Among the season’s symphonic highlights are Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Teatro Colón and his debut with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Since 2019, Alejo Pérez has served as Music Director of the Flemish Opera, where he has led productions of Pelléas et Mélisande, Lohengrin, Don Carlos, Tristan und Isolde and La clemenza di Tito. In the 2024/25 season, he will conduct new productions of Salome (directed by Ersan Mondtag) and Wozzeck (directed by Johan Simons), as well as concert performances of Norma.
Alejo Pérez has appeared with numerous internationally renowned orchestras, including Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and Ensemble Intercontemporain.
He also maintains long-standing collaborations with the Stuttgart Opera (Medea, The Love for Three Oranges, Werther), Opéra de Lyon (Pelléas et Mélisande, Die Gezeichneten, GerMANIA, From the House of the Dead), and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (La Cenerentola, The Nose, Lulu, The Fiery Angel). Other engagements have taken him to Lyric Opera of Chicago, Tokyo New National Theatre, Opéra Bastille, as well as the opera houses of Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Oslo, Warsaw, and Brussels (La Monnaie).
From 2009 to 2012, Pérez was Music Director of Teatro Argentino de La Plata. From 2010, he was one of the principal conductors at Teatro Real in Madrid under the leadership of Gerard Mortier, collaborating with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid in concerts and productions such as Rienzi, Don Giovanni, Death in Venice, Golijov’s Ainadamar, and Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico.
Pérez has studied both composition and conducting in addition to piano in his native Buenos Aires, and later in Karlsruhe with Peter Eötvös. Formative periods at the start of his conducting career included assisting Peter Eötvös, Michael Gielen, as well as Christoph von Dohnányi at the NDR Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, Alejo Pérez was awarded the Konex Platinum Award for his artistic achievements – one of the highest honours in Argentina.