Pacific Symphony is entering an exciting new chapter led by Alexander Shelley, who plans to take the orchestra to the “next level,” he told the Business Journal.
“I’m a different conductor and a different musician as a person to Carl, so I will bring different takes on pieces that audiences know very well, and I think that’s so exciting,” Shelley said of his predecessor Carl St. Clair. “One is not better or worse than the other.
They’re just different perspectives of the reason we have live performance because these pieces can be reexamined from lots and lots of different angles.”
Last month, the London-born conductor was appointed the next artistic and music director, making him just the third person to take on the role in the orchestra’s 46-year history.
It’s a historic announcement for Pacific Symphony, which hasn’t had a new music director in 35 years.
“There’s incredible excitement about the choice and the fact that we were able to secure someone of his stature” Chief Executive John Forsyte told the Business Journal.
Shelley succeeds St. Clair, who will become music director laureate and help with the transition.
“In the coming seasons, my role will be to ensure that Alexander has an amazing, exciting and productive tenure as he leads the orchestra into its 50th anniversary season,” St. Clair told the Business Journal.
Pacific Symphony found a new successor for St. Clair two years after he announced his retirement.
Shelley’s tenure will begin in the 2026-2027 season for an initial five-year term. He will serve as music director designate during the 2025-2026 season before assuming full artistic leadership in 2026-2017, according to Pacific Symphony.
Pacific Symphony, which produced over 100 concerts this year, ranked as the 25th largest nonprofit in Orange County with revenue of $24.4 million, up 3% from the year prior.
Forsyte said Pacific Symphony will soon roll out a new monthly membership program that will give patrons unlimited access to the orchestra’s classical programming.
35-Year Long Tenure
St. Clair said that Shelley’s appointment is a “moment of great excitement” for Pacific Symphony.
“He is the ideal musician, person and leader to take Pacific Symphony forward,” St. Clair said. “The orchestra’s future burns brightly ahead of us and his vision will take us there.”
It’s also a bittersweet moment for him to step down from the position he has held for more than three decades, earning St. Clair the title of longest-tenured American-born conductor of a major U.S. orchestra.
Under St. Clair, Pacific Symphony made its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 and was one of the youngest orchestras to be recognized as a Tier 1 orchestra by the League of American Orchestras.
As music director laureate, St. Clair will return next season to conduct four concerts, including the annual semi-staged opera.
“I’m happy that I will continue to have a place at Pacific Symphony to revel in and continue to contribute to the brilliance of the orchestra and the organization,” St. Clair said.
He recently earned another new title at Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra in Germany as honorary guest conductor for life after 28 years with the orchestra.
St. Clair said he plans to continue his work at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where he serves as artistic leader and principal conductor of the orchestral and large ensemble program.
He has long-standing relationships with orchestras abroad including the National Orchestra of Costa Rica and the annual Seiji Ozawa Music Festival in Matsumoto, Japan, founded by conductor Seiji Ozawa, who was St. Clair’s last living mentor and teacher before he passed away in February this year.
The Two-Year Search for a Successor
Pacific Symphony held an international search for its next music director.
Six musicians from the orchestra were included in the search committee to “ensure that the musicians’ collective voice was central to the process,” according to board member Mark Nielsen, who chaired the search committee.
Among the qualities they were looking for were someone passionate about community engagement and a bold thinker eager to reimagine the concert experience, Nielsen said.
“We sought an intangible quality, something you know instinctively when you see it and feel it,” he said. “It’s the connection that allows an orchestra and conductor to breathe as one.”
Candidates were asked to meet with staff, conduct concerts and lead pre-concert lectures. Input was also taken from the audience through surveys collected following performances.
Son of Concert Pianists
Shelley has served as music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015.
This year, he also began his tenure as artistic and music director of Artis-Naples in Florida.
He and his wife Zoe, a personal trainer, fitness model and author, have lived between Canada and London with their sons Sasha and Leo.
They’ll remain based outside of London but plan to establish a residence in Orange County and spend significant time here when Shelley is conducting at Pacific Symphony and the kids’ school is out.
It marks a return for Shelley who has childhood memories visiting family friends in Laguna Beach.
“The experience for a child coming into California for the first time, it’s always memorable,” Shelley said. “It’s just such a gorgeous place.”
Shelley first guest conducted a concert with Pacific Symphony in 2012, which featured George Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks” and Claude Debussy’s “La Mer.”
“The orchestra was so responsive,” he said. “As a conductor, that’s what you’re looking for. You want to be working with people who are open-minded and flexible. If you have that, then you can achieve anything.”
Born to two concert pianists, Shelley said he grew up surrounded by music during an on-stage interview with Maria Hall-Brown, executive producer at PBS SoCal.
He fondly recalled there being five, 12-foot-long grand concert pianos and three regular-sized grand pianos spread out in their home.
“I heard my parents communicating with one another through music,” Shelley said.
“When you as a three- or four-year-old see your parents sitting at two pianos playing music—listening responding— you realize what’s happening. You feel it deep inside you.”
Catching “the Bug” for Conducting
Early on, he gained interest in the cello before eventually trading in the bow for the baton.
He asked to lead his high school orchestra, and that’s when he “caught the bug” for conducting.
“My father said, ‘Look, if you want to become a conductor, the most important thing is to actually conduct. Yes, of course, studying and learning, but you need to be in front of ensembles,’” Shelley said.
At 18, Shelley moved to Germany to study cello and conducting at Robert Schumann Hochschule, where he founded a chamber orchestra called the “Schumann Camerata” that was made up of friends and colleagues.
“The only means I had to persuade them to play with me was by working with them in a manner that felt inclusive and felt like we were really doing something together as a team because I couldn’t pay them and we couldn’t pay each other,” Shelley said.
Together, they toured Russia and held five years worth of concerts titled “440hz,” combining different genres of art.
Shelley’s career took off in 2005 when he was the youngest person at the time to win the Leeds Conductors Competition at age 25.
His mother had encouraged him to enter. Setting low expectations, he sent in a video submission and was accepted as one of 25 finalists.
Shelley progressed through each round, getting to conduct works by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky with a professional orchestra.
“Because of what had then been six, seven years of working very rapidly with my own ensemble, the act of rehearsing was sort of second nature to me,” Shelley said.
Shelley said he’ll bring a different perspective to the role as he takes it to the next level.
One of his goals is to collaborate with artists of different mediums, including dance, visual arts and film.
He also plans to build on the orchestra’s relationship with Pacific Chorale to bring more choral works to the stage in the coming season.
Shelley will make his first appearance in his new role with Pacific Symphony next May at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, performing works from Tan Dun and Iman Habibi.
