Alexandre Bloch became a rising star of France's conducting scene when he assumed the music directorship of the Orchestre National de Lille in 2016.

Bloch was born in 1985. He studied cello, composition, and conducting in the city of Orléans, later switching to conducting full-time and moving to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Paris to study with Zsolt Nagy. The year 2012 saw major breakthroughs in Bloch's career: he won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition of the London Symphony Orchestra, leading to an assistant conductorship there; he was named Talent of the Year by ADAMI (the French counterpart to ASCAP in the U.S.); and he made last-minute appearances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, replacing the ailing Mariss Jansons at the helm for Richard Strauss' challenging Tod und Verklärung. He went on from the Conservatoire National to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, where he received an Artist Diploma in 2013. In 2012 and 2013 Bloch was also a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, a frequent stepping stone to a high-flying career in the U.S. For several years, in addition to his London post, Bloch made guest appearances with top-flight orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orchestre Chambre de Paris, and the Manchester Camerata.

After assuming the music directorship in Lille, Bloch continued to cast a wide net in terms of exposure. In the 2016-2017 season, he made his debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), and the Brussels Philharmonic. He also conducted a production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d’Amore at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and a concert version of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles in Lille. Bloch also made visits to the Orchestre National de France, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. In 2017-2018 Bloch added appearances with the Düsseldorf Symphony, the Musikalische Akademie of Mannheim, and the Musikkollegium Winterthur to his roster. ~ James Manheim, Rovi