AlexanderShelley

Since 2015, Alexander Shelley has served as both Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and as Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2023 he was also appointed Artistic and Music Director of Artis−Naples in Florida, USA, providing artistic leadership for the Naples Philharmonic and for the entire multidisciplinary arts organisation. The 2024-25 season is Alexander’s inaugural season in this position.

In 2024, Alexander was named the third Music Director of Pacific Symphony, beginning in the 2026-27 season. He will serve as Music Director Designate during the 2025-26 season, before assuming full artistic leadership in 2026-27. Alexander succeeds Carl St.Clair, who has directed the orchestra for 35 years.

He is also Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s ECHO and Deutsche Gründerpreis-winning “Zukunftslabor”. In August 2017 Alexander concluded his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, a position he held since September 2009.

Unanimous winner of the 2005 Leeds Conductors' Competition, he has since worked regularly with the leading orchestras of Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Orchester Hannover, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Gothenburg Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Milwaukee, Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras.

Alexander’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Den Kongelige Opera); La bohème (Opera Lyra/National Arts Centre), Iolanta (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Così fan tutte (Opéra national de Montpellier), and The Marriage of Figaro (Opera North) in 2015. In 2017 he led a co-production of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel with the NACO and Canadian Opera Company.