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To do the things that are difficult, and so that means commissioning projects led by contemporary artists that delve into difficult issues and difficult themes. Everybody I’ve worked with here has shared that vision. We’ve commissioned over 50 works since I came here, which is really wonderful.
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Q: Tell me about your new job.
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A: I’ve just started as a music director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles. I’m the music director designate there right now, and when I finish here in Ottawa, that role begins in earnest in the September of that year. The Pacific Symphony serves 3.5 million people in Orange County in the south of Los Angeles, and has a beautiful concert hall.
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Alexander Shelley is leaving the NAC in July 2026.Photo by JULIE OLIVER/Postmedia Photo by JULIE OLIVER /PostmediaArticle content
Q: Do you have any trepidation about being in the United States, given the political situation of the moment?
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A: I travel between Ottawa and Florida and L.A. on a weekly basis, and it’s a great privilege. If I were to live by the headlines, I’d be in a constant state of indignation everywhere I went. But if you live rather by how people actually are when you meet them, the world looks very different.
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People tend to be charming and kind and interested. While politics can be concerning and headlines can be shocking, in practice I find there’s far more that unites people than divides (them).
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Q: Are there any lessons you feel you learned in Ottawa?
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A: I think being at the centre of a national organization has been invigorating and a huge learning process. Right from the very beginning, I was given a challenge: “How do you celebrate the sesquicentennial of a country? What does it look like?”
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That was a learning process. We could have had moose and maple syrup. But it was like, “No let’s do this properly. What are deep Canadian stories?”
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Q: Did you acquire any new skills during your time here that you can add to your resume?
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A: Well, the job I have in Naples in Florida that would not have happened if it had not been for this job in Ottawa. Artis-Naples is a multi-disciplinary arts organization.
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We have a visual arts museum, we have dance, we have a film festival, we have Broadway, we have the orchestra and I’m the artistic director of the whole thing. I was hired by them because they saw the work that we were doing here.
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What has been added to my resume here has been working alongside these incredible artistic leaders in the other disciplines, and working for an arts organization that is interested in joining together the art forms and seeing what that looks like in the 21st century.
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Creating is something that I will now never let go in my life. It’ll always be central.
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Q: Will we see you again after next year?
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A: Of course. My relationship with the NAC is is always going to be very meaningful to me and it will be the first call I’ll make when we’re putting together interesting projects in Florida or California.
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Are there ways we could collaborate? Are there Canadian perspectives we could bring in? I find it very exciting indeed that I can be a part of generating ideas with whoever comes next year in in this job.
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Every time I come back, I say this must be one of the most beautiful and livable cities in the world.
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