Alexander Shelley is announced as artistic and music director of the Pacific Symphony by CEO John Forsyte, right, on October 13, 2024. Photo by Don Leach/Los Angeles Times.
In Wednesday’s (11/13) Orange County Register (California), Samantha Dunn writes, “British maestro Alexander Shelley will succeed Carl St.Clair as artistic and music director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra…. Shelley is only the third musical director of the orchestra, which was founded in 1978 … St.Clair’s 35-year tenure at Pacific Symphony is recognized as the longest for an American-born music director of any major American orchestra…. Shelley adds Orange County to an already prestigious … roster of artistic appointments: He serves as both music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) in Ottawa, Canada, and as London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra principal associate conductor … In 2023, he was also named music and artistic director at Artis in Florida, leading the Naples Philharmonic…. Shelley brings to Pacific Symphony a well-honed international reputation—he was the youngest-ever chief conductor of Germany’s Nürnberger Symphoniker, a position he held for eight seasons until 2017. Shelley was also the founding artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s ‘Future Lab,’ a program that uses music and art to help disadvantaged youth in Germany…. St.Clair will lead three subscription weeks in the coming season before assuming his lifetime appointment as Music Director Laureate.” Shelley will be the Pacific Symphony’s artistic and music director-designate in the 2025-26 season, becoming artistic and music director in 2026-27.
