Canada’s National Arts Centre has appointed 34-year-old UK conductor Alexander Shelley as music director designate of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. He officially takes up the role of music director in September 2015, succeeding Pinchas Zukerman.

‘Alexander Shelley is one of the leading figures in the new generation of international conductors,’ said Peter Herrndorf, president and CEO of the National Arts Centre. ‘He is an exceptionally gifted musician, with a wide range of experience and a strong emphasis on the creation of new work and community engagement.’

Shelley has conducted the NAC Orchestra in performance five times in the last four years. Awarded first prize in the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, he is currently in his fifth season as chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. He also performs regularly with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and is artistic director of that orchestra’s Zukunftslabor project – a series designed to build a lasting relationship between the orchestra and younger concert-goers.