Helsinki native John Storgards will become the NACO’s eighth music director beginning in the 2026–2027 season.Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photography
John Storgards will be the next music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, it was announced early Wednesday. The Finnish maestro succeeds Alexander Shelley, whose departure was made public in May.
Storgards, a 61-year-old conductor and violinist, debuted with the Ottawa-based NACO in 2013 and has served as its principal guest conductor since 2015. He will become the NACO’s eighth music director beginning in the 2026–2027 season. His contract is for four years.
“I couldn’t be more honoured, happy, and thrilled to become music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, an orchestra I already love so deeply,” Storgards said in a statement. “When I look back at the highlights of each season, my concerts with the NAC Orchestra always stand out among the very best moments.”
He currently serves as chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the oldest orchestra in Finland. The Helsinki native is also artistic director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, a position he has held since 1996. He will continue with those other appointments when he assumes his new role in Ottawa.
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Storgards has a reputation as a staunch advocate for 20th- and 21st-century composers. In 2019 with the NACO at Southam Hall he conducted the world premiere of Canadian Métis composer Ian Cusson’s Le loup de Lafontaine. He was at the podium for the orchestra’s first-ever performance of Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 5 and Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 2.
Of the seven previous music directors in the NACO’s history, two have been Canadian: Jean-Marie Beaudet (1969–1971) and Mario Bernardi (1971–1982).
Finland has a reputation for punching above its weight when it comes to its internationally acclaimed conductors. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, currently the artistic director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 2001. The late Paavo Berglund was a towering figure in modern conducting of the works of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
Canadian musicologist Paul Rapoport once told The Globe and Mail that Finnish conductors do not have a specific style or sound: “They’re just very well trained.”
The son of an economist, Storgards studied with the late Israeli violinist Chaim Taub. In 2019, he appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a collaborative program with Canadian conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan.
“John has been a cherished colleague of mine for almost two decades, and it is such a privilege to witness the mastery and sincerity of his music-making,” Hannigan said in a statement released by the NACO.
Maestro Shelley steps down from his NACO post after next season’s closing performance on July 2, 2026. He takes over the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, in Costa Mesa, Calif., beginning with the 2026-27 season.
