See? I told you so. That's what I can imagine all of composer/conductor/prodigy Alexander Prior's supporters rightly saying to me today: instead of any slowdown in his career or change of musical direction, the 17-year-old has just been announced as the assistant to the Seattle Symphony's Guest Conductors until July this year – and no, that shouldn't just mean polishing a few egos or getting the Starbucks in for a few jet-lagged maestros.
It's been a good few months for Alex, as this appointment comes hot on the heels of him finishing as a runner-up in the Leeds Conductors Competition last summer, where he was up against competitors twice his age. The Seattle job is a good leg-up into the properly professional world, but Alex is still going to need a Lenny Bernstein-style combination of luck for himself and misfortune for others to make a name for himself. As the assistant of the guest conductors, he'll only actually take a rehearsal or conduct a concert in public should one of the named maestros such as Kurt Masur or Vassily Sinaisky have to cancel – just as Bruno Walter did in 1943, so that Bernstein could take over the New York Philharmonic and change the course of the musical world.
I wonder, though, what all this conducting means for Alex's composing career. Will he try and visit his own music on the unsuspecting musicians and public in Seattle? Or does all this stick-work mean composing has to take second place? Time will tell. At least, in the real world of working musicians in Seattle, Alex will have to do his growing up fast if he's going to make it, and try to transform from prodigy to professional.
