Guest conductor Alexander Shelley performs the New World Symphony concert in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2023.Doug Gifford/The Associated Press
Opening his first season as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa in the fall of 2015, Alexander Shelley’s first impression at Southam Hall was as a sharp-dressed conductor. Though most people noticed the tuxedo and then a tailcoat, only the eagle-eyed caught the rim of brass above each heel of his dress shoes.
On Wednesday evening, again in Southam Hall, it was announced that the maestro would be moving on. Shelley will end his inspired tenure as the NACO leader after the 2025-26 season. His shoes will be hard to fill.
The announcement was made on stage before a preview performance of the orchestra’s upcoming tour of Japan and South Korea. The news would not have caught many in the hall off guard. A year ago, Shelley was hired to take over the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, in Costa Mesa, Calif., starting with the 2026-27 season. In 2023, he was appointed artistic and music director of Artis−Naples, home of the Naples Philharmonic in Florida.
He will step down from his NACO post after next season’s closing performance in July, 2026.
Born in London, Shelley became the youngest music director in the orchestra’s history when he assumed the role a decade ago at age 35. Succeeding Pinchas Zukerman, a talented violinist and brilliant sound producer but an unexciting programmer, Shelley was a breath of fresh air.
His first program in 2015 boldly paired works by Mahler and Edward Elgar with a commissioned piece by Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri, whose Dear Life was an interpretation of an Alice Munro short story.
The piece was part of 2016’s Life Reflected, the orchestra’s multimedia creation inspired by four Canadian women: Amanda Todd, Roberta Bondar, Rita Joe and Munro. Jocelyn Morlock’s My Name Is Amanda Todd won a Juno Award for top classical composition.
Major tours under Shelley’s reign included 2017’s national Canada 150 Tour, 2019’s 50th Anniversary European Tour and 2022’s Truth in Our Time Tour, which saw the orchestra return to New York’s Carnegie Hall after 30 years for the world premiere performance of a NACO-commissioned symphony from legendary composer Philip Glass.
“To have served the National Arts Centre and Canadian music has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Shelley said in a statement released to the press. “Working with innumerable Canadian artists through extraordinarily challenging times has enriched me more than I can express.”
During his time in Canada, Shelley started a family.
“My two sons were born in Ottawa. They are Canadians. My wife, Zoe, and I could not be prouder of this fact or more grateful to this country for the lifelong friendships we have forged, for the memories it has gifted us, for the unshakeable generosity of spirit shown to us, and for over a decade of unforgettable cultural and musical adventures. A part of our spirit will always remain here.”
Shelley leads the NACO in a sold-out tour-preview concert at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall on Friday. Later this month, the orchestra will make its debut in South Korea.
In June, the NACO returns to Japan for the first time in 40 years to perform works by Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Japanese-Canadian composer Keiko Devaux. A concert at Expo 2025 in Osaka will celebrate the late Oscar Peterson’s 100th birthday.
Shelley’s final season with the NACO opens this fall with a semi-staged production of Tosca, directed by Joel Ivany and produced in partnership with Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Residency Program.
Soloists sharing the stage with the orchestra in 2025-26 are violinists Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, James Ehnes and Augustin Hadelich; cellist Bryan Cheng; classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas; mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne; and pianists Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jan Lisiecki, Hélène Grimaud, Stewart Goodyear and Jaeden Izik-Dzurko.
