Alexander Shelley departs from his music director role at the National Arts Centre Orchestra after 11 years.Curtis Perry/Supplied
Alexander Shelley conducts his final concert as the music director of National Arts Centre Orchestra on July 2. The British maestro leaves Ottawa after 11 years on the job to become the artistic and music director of the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, Calif., and principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland. He spoke to The Globe and Mail from the nation’s capital.
You came to this country 11 years ago to lead its national orchestra. Can you talk about the special responsibility of running a federally funded group of musicians?
Coming into this job, that was front and centre. Every project starts from the perspective of federal money, from the people of Canada, coming direct by parliamentary decree to the National Arts Centre.
How important was the sesquicentennial tour of the country in 2017, early in your tenure?
We really leaned into that, asking how we celebrate Canada. Is it a big moose, some bear taxidermy and a hockey puck, or is it something else?
National Arts Centre Orchestra members reflect on Alexander Shelley’s time at the helm
I think it’s fair to say that what was commissioned for the tour, the four-part multimedia extravaganza Life Reflected, was something else.
It’s the story of four incredible Canadian women. Then we commissioned ENCOUNT3RS, a collaboration with Ballet BC, Alberta Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. When we went to Carnegie Hall in 2022, we built a piece written by Philip Glass that was based on the life of Peter Jennings, who was a great Canadian export to ABC News. Everything was rooted in the question of “what are Canadian stories?”
Beyond the Canadian stories, there is an audacity at work. You were certainly riskier than your predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman.
We have the responsibility to do certain things that invite risk that perhaps other orchestras can’t take because they have to manage their finances in a somewhat different fashion. We shouldn’t be taking money from the central government to support a project that would work commercially anyway. However, you still have an enormous responsibility to be as cogent as possible to ensure success.
But you can’t ensure success when it’s new.
I relish that. And I’ve taken that responsibility very seriously − the opportunity, privilege and responsibility of trying to do justice to this incredible country in the work that we do, and try to be national advocates. That has been a phenomenal life experience.
Earlier this year when the NAC Orchestra performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 at Roy Thomson Hall, you spoke about the piece to the audience. Not all conductors provide context. Why do you?
It’s always been important to me as a leader of the orchestra and its figurehead within the National Arts Centre to communicate with the audience and frame what is coming.
For example, Shostakovich’s War Symphonies. I would share that nothing about the experience is going to be comfortable, because it’s not supposed to be. What Shostakovich has done is write a piece of music that describes totalitarianism. I will tell the audience they will feel claustrophobic and that they will feel violence on stage, and that the composer felt it and had the capacity to define it in sound and share it like a message in the bottle to the future. And in a quasi-sacred space together in complete safety, we can allow our spirit and our souls to dive into that darkness, come out and have a nice glass of wine and talk about it.
Do you consider that kind of communication part of your legacy?
I hope so. And trying to be an articulate guide or conduit for this vast world of music. Because there is no genre of music that is so poorly served by its name, classical music.
Because it covers so many eras and traditions?
This is 600 years of music and thousands upon thousands of non-stop days of listening to music with the greatest diversity I can think of. It could be a simple pan flute or it could be a symphony orchestra of 200 people, and everything in between.
Mr. Shelley is leaving Ottawa to become the artistic and music director of the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, Calif., and principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland.Curtis Perry/Supplied
Because you’re not a warrior, the phrase “He came, he saw, he conquered” doesn’t suit you. Can you replace “conquered” with verb that better describes your 11 years in Canada?
That’s a really nice question. It’s not a clean verb, but I will say, “entered into the spirit.”
Anybody who has my job can lead in many different directions and lots of different ways. But I think being in the spirit of the organization is important. It’s a national entity embedded in the national capital, in the most immediate sense serving that community but of course spreading its wings across the country, and asking how can we in this vast space that is Canada have touchpoints with other communities. How can someone who lives in the furthest part of British Columbia feel they have ownership in this orchestra? It’s not just about being the best sounding orchestra on Earth.
Isn’t that a big part of the job as well?
My daily bread of the orchestra is training and working and refining. I try to zoom out, though. I’m not someone who says, “first violin, second violin, be more together,” or that this has to be the perfect music.
Isn’t that the goal, perfection?
Yes, but why? Why should anyone care? That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue perfection. But then we must ask, what does the perfection serve? It’s the expression of the human condition. So, this job isn’t to serve Alexander Shelley. It’s about making the orchestra sound as great as it can in order to then tell the bigger, better story.
And how’s that going for you?
One can spend a lifetime at it. Maybe someone such as Margaret Atwood thinks consciously or unconsciously about these things and manages to make a huge impact. As did Alice Munro. These are people who move the mountain.
For the rest of us mortals, we think about it, care about it and pick up a shovel and try to do something good and meaningful every day. Or try to communicate something inspiring every day. It’s about moving the needle.
This interview has been edited and condensed.