Alexander Shelley
(c) Nürnberger Symphoniker
British conductor Alexander Shelley, 45, the Ottawa based National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Music Director will end his tenure after the 2025-26. Alexander Shelley’s farewell concert comes towards the end of NAC’s 2025-2026 season, with his contract set to end Aug. 31, 2026.
Shelley is Music Director designate for the 2025-2026 season of the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, Calif., and is set to fully take the reins of the Orange County orchestra in the 2026-27 season.
Shelley joined the Ottawa orchestra in September 2015 at age 35, becoming the youngest music director in NAC Orchestra’s history.
Born in London to concert pianists, Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany and shot to fame when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors’ Competition. He went on to become the youngest-ever chief conductor of Germany’s Nürnberger Symphoniker, from 2009 to 2017.
Since 2015, Shelley also served as associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2023 was appointed artistic and music director of Artis−Naples in Florida for the Naples Philharmonic.
