Alexis Hauser is the last pupil of legend Hans Swarowsky who is still teaching at an international major music university (McGill, Montreal, Canada).
Winner of the prestigious Koussevitzky Conducting Prize of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship for Tanglewood 1974, Alexis Hauser was born in Vienna, Austria, and graduated with distinction from Hans Swarowsky's master class 1970 (Vienna Musik-Universität) as well as from master courses with George Hurst (Canford 196768, England), Franco Ferrara (Accademia Chigiana Siena 1969) and Herbert von Karajan (Salzburg Sommerakademie 1970).
His conducting debut took place with the Vienna Symphony in 1973 whereupon Seiji Ozawa invited him to San Francisco and to Tanglewood in 1974. He made his US debut as guest conductor with the Atlanta Symphony with Itzhak Perlman as soloist and at the New York City Opera in 1975.
Since then Hauser’s international guest conducting schedule has included some of the world’s renown orchestras, such as Vienna Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Radio Philharmonic Hilversum, Radio Symphony Berlin, South West German Radio Symphony, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow (with whom he recorded Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony), Orchestre National Toulouse; Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Czech Philharmonic Brno, Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest, Budapest Symphony, the Philharmonics of Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Krakow as well as the major symphonies in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minnesota, Rochester, Montreal (with several re-engagements), Toronto and Mexico City; Hauser also conducted at Chicago's Grant Park Festival, Washington Opera, Opera Midwest Chicago, and in Finland, Norway and Iceland. He made his European Opera Conducting debut at the Zürich Opera House in 2005 with the world premiere of the Opera “Kalkül” by Werner Schulze (music) and Carl Djerassi (libretto).
His first permanent position as Music Director came from Orchestra London Canada (1981 - 88) with which he toured to Italy’s L’Aquila Festival in 1982, recorded regularly for CBC and arranged an annual Beethoven Festival as well as an international Gustav Mahler Symposium in 1986 with performances of the composer’s “Symphony of a Thousand”. As principal guest conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic (1991-95) he made several recordings and a video of Mahler's Symphony Nr. 1 which was transmitted throughout Europe. As Music Director of the KCM Orchestra Tokyo (1995 - 2000) he recorded Messiaen’s “Turangalîla Symphonie” and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and performed in Tokyo’s most prestigious auditoriums Suntory Hall and Bunka Kaikan. From 1992 until 1997 he served as Principal Conductor of the Romanian Mozart Festival: highpoints included the television premiere of Mozart’s Requiem in the completion of Robert Levin and performances of La clemenza di Tito. In Austria he served as Principal Conductor of the contemporary Music Festival “Niederösterreich International” in the mid-nineties. Since 1999 he is closely associated with the Ensemble Wiener Collage, composed of members of the Vienna Philharmonic, which he conducts at the Vienna Arnold Schönberg Center; and since 2013 he spent the summer months conducting Les Orpheistes Festival Orchestra at the Vienna International Orpheus Academy. Current videos include Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Erwin Schulhoff’’s Five Pieces for Strings.
Hauser’s performances/collaborations with many world renowned artists in opera and concert, include: violonists Itzhak Perlman, Ida Haendel, Young-Uck Kim; pianists Stefan Askenase, Rudolf Buchbinder, Jean-Philippe Collard, Philippe Entremont, Anton Kuerti, André Laplante; cellists Leonard Rose, David Geringas, Matt Haimovitz; singers Jane Archibald, Jane Eaglen, Maureen Forrester, Jerry Hadley, Dmitri Pittas, Joseph Rouleau, Michael Schade et Alan Titus.
Hauser’s special interest in working with young musicians and conductors led to guest professorships/master classes in Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music in New York; the Music University Graz, Austria; the Royal Conservatory in Toronto; Chicago Civic Orchestra; the Kunitachi Music University in Tokyo, Japan and the International Orpheus Academy in Vienna, Austria. In 2016 he also conducted at the “XIXe Festival des orchestres de jeunes du Québec”.
As Director of the McGill Symphony Orchestra Montreal he received already after his inaugural season 2001/2 invitations to appear at the International Festival of Lanaudière and also in New York at Carnegie Hall. The “Montreal Gazette” praised Hauser's performance of Verdi's Falstaff as a “revelation” and listed his interpretation of Mahler's Tenth Symphony (which was released meanwhile in public by McGill Records) as one of the top 10 of 2002 Classical Music Performances. In 2004, Hauser performed the Canadian premiere of the original 1880 version of Mahler's “Das klagende Lied” . In 2005 he revived, together with Stage Director François Racine, Harry Somer’s Opera “Louis Riel” at Montreal’s Place des Arts, which was awarded the Prix Opus “Événement musical de l’année” by the Conseil québécois de la musique. Of this opera, Hauser arranged an orchestral suite which is scheduled to be world premiered in 2024.
First performances include Pierre Boulez' Notations pour orchestre I - IV & VII (March 2011 Canadian Premiere); Friedrich Cerha's Sinfonie (Pan-American premiere March 2012); Kaija Saariaho’s Laterna magica (Québec premiere November 2013 in Montréal’s new Maison symphonique); Zdzislaw Wysocki’s Two Orchestral Etudes op. 69 (Feb. 2014 World premiere); Wolfgang Rihm’s “Transitus” (Feb. 2016 World Premiere outside of Europe).
Hauser’s CD albums with the MGSO include such works as Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony, Messiaen's “L'Ascension” as well as Mahler's “Resurrection” –and 10th Symphony (in the Cooke performing version). Recent Videos appeared also of Shostakovich's "Babi Yar" – Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony” and Messiaen’s “Turangalîla Symphonie”.
In 2013 Hauser started a new position in Montreal as Artistic Director of “Pronto Musica”, an orchestra made up of excellent young professional musicians. Dedicated also to Canadian music, the ensemble performed Denis Gougeon’s “La Fête sacrée” in March 2013 and Alan Belkin’s Overture “Night Passages” in February 2015. Highlights included Tchaikovsky’s String Serenade op. 48 and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony op. 110a and Fauré’s Requiem.
Since 2013 Hauser spent the summer months conducting Les Orpheistes Festival Orchestra (now called Camerata Orphica) at the Vienna International Orpheus Academy and in the Arnold Schönberg Center. Current videos include Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Erwin Schulhoff’’s Five Pieces for Strings.
In addition to Hauser’s numerous CDs and DVDs, more than 100 Live Video programs can be seen on www.youtube.com.
