Simply earlier than releasing particulars of programming for 2025-2026, the Nationwide Arts Centre Orchestra introduced that it might be the final season with Alexander Shelley on the rostrum. After 11 profitable seasons, Maestro Shelley will conduct the orchestra as its Music Director for the final time in July 2026.
In 2015, when Shelley stepped into the function, he turned the orchestra’s youngest ever Music Director, taking up from Pinchas Zukerman.
“Alexander Shelley is an distinctive conductor and beneficiant collaborator who propelled the NAC
Orchestra to new heights whereas making Canadian artists and composers central to his imaginative and prescient,” stated
NAC President and CEO Christopher Deacon in an announcement.
“He instinctively understood the significance of the Orchestra’s nationwide function and totally embraced it, giving Canadian creativity a platform to shine. He has left an indelible mark on the NAC Orchestra and the numerous artists he has impressed throughout his time as Music Director. We are going to miss him dearly.”
Alexander Shelley
“To have served the Nationwide Arts Centre and Canadian music has been the privilege of a lifetime,”
stated Alexander Shelley.
“Working with innumerable Canadian artists by terribly difficult instances has enriched me greater than I can specific. My two sons have been born in Ottawa. They’re Canadians. My spouse Zoe and I couldn’t be prouder of this reality or extra grateful to this nation for the lifelong friendships we’ve got cast, for the recollections it has gifted us, for the unshakeable generosity of spirit proven to us, and for greater than a decade of unforgettable cultural and musical adventures. Part of our spirit will all the time stay right here. And as for the outstanding NAC Orchestra: I started my tenure as their biggest fan and depart them with my love and admiration solely deepened, profoundly so.”
Shelley’s present roles additionally embody principal affiliate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Inventive and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic. As Inventive Director and Music Director of Artis-Naples, dwelling of The Baker Museum and the Naples Philharmonic, he’ll present management for all of the group’s undertakings.
In September 2025, Shelley will start in his function of Music Director Designate of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in California, and tackle the place totally for the 2026-2027 season.
Alexander Shelley: Bio In Transient
Shelley grew up in a musical household with dad and mom and live performance pianists Howard Shelley and Hilary Macnamara in London, England. It was his grandmother who first taught him to play the cello, and he’d go on to check cello efficiency on the Royal Faculty of Music, and the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf. He toured as a member of the World Orchestra for Peace in 2003 with conductor Valery Gergiev.
Alexander studied conducting in Germany, and have become assistant conductor to Yan Pascal Tortelier, working with numerous ensembles together with the Nationwide Youth Orchestra of Nice Britain. Amongst his accolades:
- First prize within the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competitors;
- In 2009, Shelley turned Inventive Director of the Zukunftslabor (Future Lab) venture of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and for his function, he obtained an Echo Klassik award in 2016;
- In 2009, he turned the youngest ever Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker (Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra), a place he held till 2017;
- The President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier awarded Alexander Shelley the Cross of the Order of Benefit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was introduced to him in Ottawa in 2023.
Together with NAC Orchestra releases, he launched three dwell albums with the Nürnberger Symphoniker, and one other with the Stockholm Philharmonic.
The Nationwide Arts Centre Orchestra
“Whether or not he’s conducting the NAC Orchestra or teaching community-based ensembles like OrKidstra, Alexander demonstrates essentially the most outstanding skill to attach with artists and audiences that I’ve ever witnessed,” stated NAC Orchestra Managing Director Nelson McDougall.
“He inherited an orchestra with an unimaginable legacy of sound manufacturing from his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, and continued to form its inventive progress and elevate its repute to new heights as a world-class ensemble. On behalf of our musicians and all the group, I thank him for his extraordinary contributions to the NAC Orchestra. Alexander leaves this orchestra in the most effective form it has ever been, cementing a legacy that may dwell on within the musicians he mentored, the groundbreaking recordings and initiatives he championed, and the numerous audiences he impressed all through his tenure.”
Shelley’s tenure on the NAC Orchestra has been marked by a dedication to collaborations, and a recognition of the general public dimensions of his function. He has been a champion of Canadian creators, commissioning greater than 50 new works from Canadian composers, and music training.
Two of the commissions, together with Jocelyn Morlock’s My Title Is Amanda Todd (from the 2017 album Life Mirrored) and Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes… by Ana Sokolović (from the 2018 album New Worlds), gained the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Yr.
He acknowledged the chance he needed to take dangers on new works, and showcase the flexibility of the orchestra and its musicians. To that finish, he spearheaded a number of initiatives, together with UAQUE (2024), a multidisciplinary collaborative venture was created with Colombian dance artist Andrea Peña (based mostly in Montreal) and famend Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky.
Below his lead, the orchestra undertook profitable nationwide and worldwide excursions, together with 2017’s Canada 150 Tour, the fiftieth Anniversary European Tour in 2019, and the Reality in Our Time Tour, which took the NAC Orchestra to Carnegie Corridor for the primary time in three many years in 2022.
Collectively, the NAC Orchestra and Shelley recorded 12 albums, garnering three JUNO Award nominations within the Massive Ensemble class.
This Season…
Shelley leads the NAC Orchestra on a tour of South Korea and Japan by Might and June, and plunges into his ultimate season at Southam Corridor within the fall.
We’re wishing Maestro Shelley all the most effective… and good luck to those that apply for the emptiness.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.