Biography

Alexander Seidel is distinguished by his great versatility:

As a countertenor, Alexander Seidel has appeared in numerous opera and theatre productions - most recently at Basel Theatre - and has sung numerous solo concerts with works by Antonio Caldara, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Friedrich Händel, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert and Antonin Dvorak.

In 2024, he made his debut in Verdi's La Traviata in Switzerland, successfully foraying into the baritone repertoire. In the future, Alexander will increasingly turn to character roles in opera.

His repertoire ranges from early Baroque music to Handel, Bach and contemporary music. In 2018, he made his debut at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival together with the Concerto Melante (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and guests), performing music by Bach and Telemann in the Master Concerts.

The British composer Thomas Adés composed the cycle "Love in Winter" for him. The German composer Manfred Schlenker dedicated a cycle of biblical duets to him based on Dvorak's "Biblical Songs".

In 2016, the Swiss composer Frederic Bolli composed the first full-length German song cycle for countertenor and piano "Trödelmarkt der Träume" and in 2017 Louizes Labès composed sonnets for countertenor and lute. Both cycles were premiered by Alexander Seidel.

Alexander Seidel is the principal organist in the Protestant Reformed parish of Höfe on Lake Zurich and has given solo concerts in St. Petersburg, Berlin and Potsdam, among other places, as well as throughout Switzerland. He has played on many historical instruments in Europe. His improvisation skills have been praised by the press as "simply brilliant" (Märkische Allgemeine).

In 2017, a Telemann CD was released on the deutsche harmonia mundi label with the Concerto Melante.

As a conductor of baroque operas and oratorios, Viennese classical music and choral symphonic works, he is recognised on the European baroque scene and is also one of the busiest choral conductors in Switzerland.

Seidel is the musical director of the Rheintaler Bach Choir, the Messiah Choir Zurich and the concert choir Sängerbund Uster. He also conducts both choirs of the Höfe Protestant parish on Lake Zurich: the project choir and the Höfe vocal ensemble. He is also familiar with musicals and theatre music thanks to his experience in the theatre business. He contributes this as musical director of the choir "SingArt - Der Chor".

Every year, he conducts highly acclaimed performances with his choirs, renowned vocal soloists and baroque orchestras. He also conducts a masterclass every summer, the "Bach Workshop" at the music course weeks of the Arosa Culture Festival, where he conducted Henry Purcell's opera Dido & Aeneas in 2019, among others.

A milestone in his work in recent years has been the performance of all the great masses by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on baroque instruments as conductor of the choir of St. Otmar in St. Gallen from 2015 to 2023. In autumn 2024, several concerts are planned with him as conductor, including works by G.F. Handel, as well as a concert performance of Chr. W. Gluck's "Orfeo et Euridice" in the Parma version.

In 1995, he founded the New Sagittarius Consort Zurich, with which he has developed over fifty concert projects and also performed at international festivals. Hospitations and assistantships have brought him together with Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, William Christie, Sir Roger Norrington and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He attended courses with Kurt Masur, Colin Metters and René Jacobs.

He has conducted concerts with the musicians of the Berlin Staatskapelle, the RSO Berlin, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the St. Gallen Chamber Soloists, the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constance, as well as the baroque orchestras Stella Matutina Feldkirch, Musica Poetica Freiburg, La Folia Dresden and La Scintilla of the Zurich Opera House. Since 2019, he has performed regularly as a harpsichordist with the chamber orchestra "ibaroccoli" in Zurich.