Hannah Schneider

GUEST CONDUCTOR

Noted for her ‘powerful flair’ and ‘elegant exactitude’, conductor HANNAH SCHNEIDER is the founder and music director of Oxford Alternative Orchestra. She began her musical career in violin performance at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the studio of Vladimir Ivanov and Alyena Chvertok. Turning her attention to conducting, she was mentored by Valery Gergiev while working as his personal assistant at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2016, she was elected as a Rhodes Scholar and moved to the UK, where she earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Oxford, and also won the conducting competition which awarded her the music directorship of Oxford University Philharmonia for 2017-2018. In her first year in Oxford, she founded Oxford Alternative Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to exploring the intersection of new music, social impact, and marginalised communities. Acclaimed for its ‘norm-defying performance contexts’, the orchestra has given charity performances across Oxfordshire and on tour in Scotland. Schneider is an avid conductor of opera, and has recently conducted the Oxford premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Corridor with 472 productions, and Verdi’s La Traviata. Highlights of the upcoming season include debut performances with the Maykop Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Ballet Hartford (USA), Lviv-INSO Orchestra (Ukraine), and two collaborations with The People's Opera: Mozart's Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, as well as concerts with Oxford Alternative Orchestra. Schneider is currently pursuing a doctorate in music at the University of Oxford, specialising in Soviet Opera.