The young Spanish conductor Alejandro Puerta Cantalapiedra (1994, Soria, Spain), is raising attention as an architect of sound. Because of his original vision on the structure of musical works and his charismatic musicianship, his performances of the great symphonic repertoire always have a special character.

During the 2023-24 and 24-25 season, he was Assistant Conductor to the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dutch National Opera. Click here for an interview with Alejandro concerning this position. In the autumn of 2022, he made his debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam. He has been chief conductor of Utrecht Young Orchestra since 2019 and was chief conductor and founder of the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid from 2016-2023. With these youth orchestras, he has conducted in famous concert halls such as the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Tivoli Vredenburg and De Doelen Rotterdam.

Between 2022 and 2025, he has been assisting at the Dutch National Opera in the productions of Salome, Königskinder and Der Freischütz, working with Cornelius Meister, Marc Albrecht and Patrick Hahn and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

Alejandro won the first prize at the II International Conducting Competition in Estoril, conducting the Orquestra de Camara de Cascais e Oeiras as guest conductor, as well as the Varna Symphony orchestra.

Since his residency in Madrid as a student of architecture at the Universidad Politécnica, Alejandro has been developing his artistic career, complementing his musical training in parallel with the creation of youth orchestras, with the aim of attracting an audience that is initially distant from the formalities of the classical concert scene. The JOECOM and Orquesta Sinfónica UPM, both in Madrid, were born out of this endeavor. With these youth orchestras, Alejandro reached in a short time an artistic level that is unimaginable for a musician of his age at the head of such heterogeneous groups. With his great energy, he has guided the youth orchestras to performances of Beethoven’s Eroica and Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at the National Auditorium of Spain, receiving overwhelming acclaim from the audience and the press.

Alejandro started his conducting studies with Juan María Esteban and Miguel Romea, before moving to the Netherlands where he continued to study at Codarts Rotterdam with Hans Leenders, Sander Teepen, and Wiecher Mandemaker. He attended masterclasses by Antony Hermus and Karel Deseure, among others.

Since June 2024, he is chief conductor of Symfonieorkest Rijnmond, where he captivates musicians and audiences alike with his infectious energy and humour, drawing them into his musical imagination.