Alexander Shelley, Principal Conductor

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Alexander Shelley as National Symphony Orchestra Ireland’s new Principal Conductor.

This will be for an initial term of three seasons, commencing in September 2026. Alexander will assume the role of Principal Conductor Designate with immediate effect. 

As Principal Conductor, Alexander will feature prominently in National Symphony Orchestra Ireland’s performance schedule and in contributing to its artistic planning. In his inaugural season, he will lead seven projects as part of the orchestra’s main season taking place between September 2026 and May 2027.

As Principal Conductor Designate, he will conduct National Symphony Orchestra Ireland in two performances in the National Concert Hall’s Spring/Summer 2025 season. In February, they will join forces with National Symphony Chorus Ireland and five internationally renowned soloists to perform Schumann’s secular oratorio and concert hall rarity, Das Paradies und die Peri, based on Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh. In March, his programme showcases the music of John Adams, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky to illustrate how music speaks across time and borders. The programme will feature John Adams’ exhilarating Short Ride in a Fast Machine, the dazzling virtuosity of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto with 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition winner Jaeden Izik-Dzurko as soloist, and Stravinsky’s colour-saturated The Firebird performed together with new visuals commissioned in partnership with Pacific Symphony and Artis–Naples.

These concerts will take place as part of the National Concert Hall’s Spring/Summer season, full details of which will be announced in October. 

About Alexander Shelley

One of the foremost conductors of his generation, Alexander Shelley is “a natural communicator, both on and off the podium” (The Daily Telegraph), appearing regularly across six continents with the world’s finest orchestras and soloists. A passionate and articulate advocate for the role of music in society, Shelley has spearheaded multiple award-winning and ground-breaking projects, unlocking creativity in the next generation and bringing symphonic music to new audiences.

With a conducting technique described as “immaculate, everything crystal clear” (Yorkshire Post), and with a “precision, distinction and beauty of gesture not seen since Lorin Maazel” (Le Devoir), Shelley is known for the integrity of his interpretations and for his creative programming. He has led over 50 major world premieres, highly praised cycles of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms symphonies, operas, ballets, and innovative multimedia productions. 

Shelley collaborates with leading international artists, including Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Daniel Hope, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, and Thomas Hampson. He is a regular guest with renowned orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia, including Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; the Helsinki, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Malaysian, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Stockholm philharmonic orchestras; and the São Paulo, Houston, Seattle, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, Munich, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, and New Zealand symphony orchestras. 

The 2025-26 season marks Shelley’s 11th and final as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO). He has recently been appointed Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, beginning in 2026-27; this season, he assumes the position of Principal Conductor Designate, leading the orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, with programs that include Schumann’s secular oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, featuring the National Symphony Chorus Ireland, and music by John Adams, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky.

In 2024 Shelley was named the third Music Director of the Pacific Symphony, beginning in the 2026-27 season; he succeeds Carl St. Clair, who has directed the orchestra for 35 years. Shelley serves as Music Director Designate during the 2025-26 season, before assuming full artistic leadership in 2026. Since the 2024-25 season, he has been the Artistic and Music Director of Artis−Naples, in Florida, where he provides artistic leadership for the Naples Philharmonic and oversees the entire multidisciplinary arts organization. He has also served as Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015.

Born in London to the celebrated concert pianists Howard Shelley and Hilary Macnamara, Shelley began playing the piano as a toddler and later started on the cello. He studied cello and conducting in Germany and gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, with the press describing him as “the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award.” Shelley is the winner of the ECHO prize and the Deutsche Gründerpreis; he received the Cross of the Federal Order of Merit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in recognition of his services to music and culture. 

Learn More about Alexander here

Photography credit: Curtis Perry