The National Concert Hall in Dublin has announced the appointment of Alexander Shelley as the new Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland. His initial three-season term will begin in September 2026, with Shelley assuming the role of Principal Conductor Designate immediately.
Shelley, currently Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples in Florida, is completing his tenure this season as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, a post he has held since 2015. From September 2026 he will also take up the position of Artistic and Music Director of the Pacific Symphony in California for a five-year term.
In his first season with the Dublin-based orchestra, Shelley is scheduled to conduct a minimum of six concerts between September and May. As Principal Conductor Designate, he will already lead two performances in the upcoming Spring/Summer season, with programmes including Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, works by John Adams and Igor Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko.
Shelley has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland on multiple occasions over the past decade. His most recent collaboration was in February 2025, directing performances of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Simone Lamsma and Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony.
The British conductor also has family ties to Ireland: his mother was born in Dún Laoghaire and educated in Monkstown, while his brother lives in Dublin.
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