Conrad van Alphen (Dutch/South African) was born in 1963 in Pretoria, where he had his general education and studied the double bass and conducting. After his music studies he became permanent member of the SABC Radio Orchestra in Johannesburg.

In 1989 he moved to The Netherlands where he worked with nearly all the major orchestras and held permanent positions in the Beethoven Academie (Antwerp) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra (Hilversum).

After moving to The Netherlands Conrad continued his conducting studies with top conductors like Eri Klas and Roberto Benzi. Conrad is artistic director of the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra, which he founded together with young professional musicians in 2000. He has built up this orchestra to one of the best chamber orchestras in The Netherlands. Conrad conducts this orchestra in series of major venues like the "Concertgebouw" in Amsterdam, "De Doelen" in Rotterdam and the "Queen Elizabeth Hall" in Antwerp.

Together with the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra he has recorded for the prestigious CD label Channel Classics and Telarc. Their recording of the Rodrigo Concierto Madrigal (Channel Classics) together with the famous Katona twins (guitar duo) was selected as "Editors Choice" in the Gramophone Magazine of February 2002. Their recording of popular string repertoire recorded for Telarc will be out in September 2003. For Raptus Records they recorded the reconstruction of the lost oboe concerto of Beethoven with a brilliant young soloist, Alexei Ogrintschouk. The Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra performed the world premiere of this piece on the 1st of March 2003 in De Doelen in Rotterdam. Conrad has recorded several pieces of the composer Gary Goldschneider for the label Sunshower Productions with both the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra and the Radio Orchestra in Sofia.

Van Alphen tours extensively with his orchestra. In 2002 they have toured through Slovenia. Official invitations have been received to perform in St. Petersburg, Macedonia and in South Africa. Apart from his activities with the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra, he is guest conductor of various orchestras throughout Europe. He conducts many orchestras in Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovenia, Macedonia, South Africa and Czech Republic. In The Netherlands Conrad van Alphen also conducts the well-known Holland Belcanto Festival and regularly conducts Holland Symfonia in Amsterdam. Van Alphen holds the position of principal guest conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra Pleven in Bulgaria and the Pskov Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia. He records regularly with the National Radio Orchestra in Sofia. His conducting has always been extremely well received and he has been re-invited by all orchestras he conducts.