Argentinian-Mexican conductor Alex Amsel has quickly established himself as a conductor equally at home on the orchestral and operatic podium, and as a music educator for students of all ages. Amsel’s hope is to integrate music into the fabric of every community he works with to reshape how we think about society and our place in it. Amsel gained international attention during a broadcast of a performance at the George Enescu Competition in Romania and secured return engagements for multiple subsequent seasons. For the 2023-2025 seasons, Amsel was appointed Associate Conductor for The Phoenix Symphony where he will lead over 30 concerts each season including classical, education, and outreach concerts. Amsel has also been appointed Resident Conductor of the Houston Grand Opera with productions of Verdi’s La traviata at the Wortham Theatre and Music Director for the world-premiere of Another City by Stephanie Fleischmann and Jeremy Howard-Beck, as well as holding the John L. Magro Chair of Resident Conductor for the Cincinnati Opera. As a Music Director finalist for the Elgin Symphony in Illinois, he led “a vibrant and textured account maintaining superb balance so its many intricacies came through…punctuating a dynamic performance” (Chicago Classical Review). Punctuating a dynamic 2023-2024 season including debuts with the Cincinnati Symphony and Opera, a tour with the West Virginia Symphony, and serving as Music Director and Conductor for University of North Texas’ production of Massenet’s Cendrillon, Amsel begins the 2024-2025 season with international engagements at the L’orchestre National de France, George Enescu Philharmonic, and Filarmonica Banatul Timisoara in Romania.
After one season with The Phoenix Symphony Amsel has led a number of new initiatives to help forge strong relationships with audiences while creating new series and programs for the community. For 2024/2025 he leads a new Chamber Orchestra Subscription Series and a Family Concert Series, forms part of the Artistic Advisory Committee and the Young Professionals’ Club, leads both pre-concert and post-concert lectures, and founded the Competition for Young Composers with future commissions for the winners. During 3 seasons with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra where he was appointed Assistant Conductor by Robert Spano he led the orchestra in a variety of concerts including Symphonic, Chamber and Education/Outreach concerts, and garnered return engagements each season since his departure. Amsel was also selected for the prestigious Aspen Conducting Academy for the 2020 and 2021 summers where he worked closely with Robert Spano, and later returned as faculty during the 2022 summer. In high demand for summer seasons as both a conductor and educator, Amsel has led orchestras at Aspen Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Round Top Music Festival, and Philadelphia International Music Festival. Other recent engagements include Assistant Conductor with L’orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Enescu Philharmonic. Amsel holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory studying under the tutelage of Marin Alsop, and has worked closely with Cristian Macelaru, Robert Spano, Patrick Summers, Jane Glover, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Tito Muñoz, and Lorenzo Passerini.
During his free time, Amsel is a wine, biking, architecture, and Golden Retriever aficionado.
