Alexis Soriano

Alexis Soriano (Chicago, 1964) is a Spanish conductor and composer of Spanish–Lithuanian descent. He studied piano and conducting in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia, and was a pupil of the renowned pedagogue Ilya Musin. Soriano has conducted major orchestras and opera houses in Europe, the Americas and Asia, and since 2020 he has served as the founder and artistic director of the International Alborada Clásica Festival in Spain. His career combines symphonic and operatic conducting with original compositions, including several chamber operas.

Soriano studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid before continuing his training at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He later studied conducting at the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA) and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint Petersburg under Ilya Musin.^[1]

Soriano made his professional debut in 1987 with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra.^[2] From 1998 to 2008 he was Principal Associate Conductor of the Hermitage Orchestra of Saint Petersburg. Between 2010 and 2012 he served as Principal Conductor of the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), and since 2012 he has been Artistic Director of the New York Opera Society.^[3]

He has conducted numerous orchestras across Europe, the Americas and Asia, including the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Symphony, Prague Symphony, Slovak Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, Tapiola Sinfonietta (Finland), São Paulo University Symphony, Oulu Symphony Orchestra (Finland), English Chamber Orchestra, Bari Metropolitan Orchestra, Cláudio Santoro Symphony Orchestra (Brasília), Orchestra Kapella of Saint Petersburg, Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra, Great Theatre Orchestra of Poznań, Moscow Virtuosi, Danubia Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Bacău Philharmonic, National Youth Russian Orchestra, Macedonian National Symphony, Regionale del Lazio Orchestra, among others, as well as the major Spanish orchestras.^[4]

He has also toured Japan and Latin America, conducting orchestras in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and São Paulo.^[5]

In 2007, at Valery Gergiev’s invitation, he participated in the BBC film The Master and His Pupil and made his conducting debut at the Mariinsky Theatre with Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.^[6]

Soriano has conducted at venues such as Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Auditorio de Tenerife, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and the Leopolis Opera Festival (Ukraine). His staged repertoire includes Rigoletto, Faust, Boris Godunov, Le nozze di Figaro, The Barber of Seville, La scala di seta, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, Falstaff and Eugene Onegin.^[7]

A champion of new operas, in 2009 he premièred Antonio Castilla-Ávila’s "La Dulcinea de Don Quijote", "Three Top Hats" by Ricardo Llorca in São Paulo, and in 2019 the world première of "Lilith, luna negra" by David del Puerto at the Úbeda Festival in Spain. He also conducted the new production of Ricardo Llorca’s "The Empty Hours" at the Teatro Real in 2021, which received wide acclaim from audiences and critics alike.^[8]

In February 2025, Soriano premiered his own opera "Malcolm X, A Portrait" during the International Alborada Clásica Festival in Motril, Spain.^[9][10]

• G. Verdi: Rigoletto, Falstaff
• C. Gounod: Faust
• M. Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
• W. A. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte
• G. Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), La scala di seta
• G. Puccini: Madama Butterfly
• P. I. Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin

In 2013 Soriano was selected among the “100 Spaniards” recognized for their international achievements, an initiative supported by Spain’s Marca España program.^[11][12] In the same year he received the Čiurlionis Foundation Prize in Lithuania for his musical achievements.^[13]

Soriano has written orchestral, chamber and vocal music, including chamber operas. His operatic works include:

• Frida and Diego, based on the lives of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
• Sonata for a Queen, inspired by Queen Bárbara de Braganza and King Ferdinand VI of Spain.
• Malcolm X, A Portrait, premiered in February 2025 within the International Alborada Clásica Festival in Motril, Spain.^[14][15]
• El rayo que no cesa, vocal cycle for mezzo-soprano, baritone and piano, based on poems by Miguel Hernández.

His string quartet Of Souls and Prayers premiered in May 2024 in Klaipėda, Lithuania.^[16]

Since 2020 Soriano has been the founder and artistic director of the International Alborada Clásica Festival held in Motril and Salobreña, Spain. The festival has featured ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Klaipėda, alongside internationally renowned soloists.^[17]

Since 2025, Soriano has served as Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the International Music School of Madrid. He has also collaborated with the Polytechnic University of Madrid in scenographic and operatic projects as a guest professor, contributing to interdisciplinary programs that combine music, stage design and performing arts.

He has also taught conducting masterclasses in Japan (University of Tokyo), Brazil (Belo Horizonte), and Spain, and has served as a jury member in international music competitions.^[18]

Critical reception of Soriano’s conducting has been notably positive:

• In Scherzo, a review of Ricardo Llorca’s Las horas vacías at the Teatro Real praised Soriano as “a brilliant Alexis Soriano, a first-class musician and an excellent conductor” whose work “imprinted the music with a seal of interpretative quality.”^[19]