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. For the 2023-2025 seasons, Amsel was appointed Associate Conductor for The Phoenix Symphony where he will lead subscriptions, movies and outreach concerts. During his time in Phoenix, Amsel founded the Student Composition Project- a unique program for composers under 18 years old to work together on their composition and have it performed by The Phoenix Symphony. He also curates and conducts the orchestra's Chamber Series with highlight performances of such as Beethoven Symphony No. 6 and Schubert symphony No. 8. He was elected as Co-Chair of the Young Professional's Board and started the Friday Post-Concert Conversations. After a successful participation at the George Enescu Competition, Amsel was selected to conduct in the final concert of the festival and received immediate engagements following the internationally-broadcasted performance. Amsel was also appointed Resident Conductor of the Houston Grand Opera with productions of Verdi’s La traviata at the Wortham Theatre and Another City, a world-premiere production by Jeremy Howard Beck, and held 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). Additional recent engagements include Assistant Conductor for L'Orchestre National de France, performances with Cincinnati , Fort Worth, and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, a tour with West Virginia Symphony and serving as Music Director and Conductor for University of North Texas’ production of Massenet’s Cendrillon.
Amsel spent 3 successful seasons with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra where he was appointed Assistant Conductor by Robert Spano and led the orchestra in a variety of concerts including Symphonic, Chamber and Education/Outreach concerts. 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 performed with orchestras at Aspen Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Round Top Music Festival, and Philadelphia International Music Festival. As Assistant Conductor for the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado, Amsel led the orchestra in multiple subscription concerts and young artist competition performances.
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.