NAC orchestra names 34-year-old award-winning Brit as new conductor

OTTAWA – A 34-year-old British born musical wunderkind will be the new conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Alexander Shelley will take the baton from Pinchas Zukerman in September 2015.

Peter Herrndorf, the NAC’s president, calls Shelley “one of the leading figures in the new generation of international conductors.”

Shelley won the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, and has led the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra for the last five seasons.

He has also led the NAC orchestra in five well-received performances in recent years.

The NAC orchestra recently completed a multi-city tour of China.

“He is an exceptionally gifted musician, with a wide range of experience and a strong emphasis on the creation of new work and community engagement,” Herrndorf says in a statement.

Shelley describes his past collaborations with the NAC as exciting and fulfilling.

Among other things, Shelley says he wants to “engage with audiences and communities around the whole of this beautiful country, to promote and support the creation of new Canadian work.”