Learn about the NAC Orchestra's monumental new album The Bounds of Our Dreams. Available for purchase here: https://bit.ly/2PqRb0R
Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).
Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation; recent hallmarks include the multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED,and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together.
Alexander Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, Artistic and Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. In the spring of 2019, he led the NAC Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th Anniversary European tour, and in 2017, he led the Orchestra in a tour across Canada, celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. Most recently, he led the Orchestra in its first performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 30 years.
He has made seven recordings with the NAC Orchestra, including the JUNO-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, and the acclaimed Clara, Robert, Johannes four-album series, all with Canadian label Analekta.
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., O.N.L., LL.D. (hc)
Born in Montreal October 15, 1947
Artistic Director, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec
“New music is fantastic. We’ve been plagued with an obsolete image from the 1950s of all these boring exercises that emptied the halls. It has nothing to do with the amazing array of different works in contemporary music. There’s something there for everybody. Enjoy new music!”
Concertgoers reluctant to test the waters of contemporary music might well heed Walter Boudreau’s clarion call – words that reveal this Montrealer as one of Canada’s leading lights on the contemporary music scene, one who works tirelessly to promote modern music by Canadians and others.
Boudreau was the first composer-in-residence of the Toronto Symphony (1990–1993). He has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) since 1988 and has brought that organization international acclaim. He has led prestigious musical ensembles and orchestras across Canada and abroad. His many awards and prizes include the inaugural CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers in 1974, the Jules Léger Prize for chamber music in 1982, the Molson Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2003, the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 2004 (the most prestigious award given by the Quebec government in the area of the performing arts), and in May 2015, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts. In 2013, he became both a member of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec. Boudreau’s teachers in Montreal have included Bruce Mather, Gilles Tremblay, and Serge Garant, and he also studied in Europe and the United States with Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis.
As a composer, Boudreau has written over 60 works for chamber ensemble and full orchestra, in addition to film scores. Other major achievements to be noted include two participatory events he organized: the Millennium Symphony in 2000 – a collective work by 19 composers for 333 musicians and 2,000 bellringers; and in 2011, Le téléphone bien tempéré, which included a role for the audience’s cell phones.
Hailed as a “hero” (Los Angeles Times), a “smashing” performer (The Washington Post), “a pianist who breaks the mold” (International Piano) and who “stands out from the typical trends and artifices offered on the international scene” (Classica), Alain Lefèvre pursues a sparkling career, having performed in over 40 countries, in the most prestigious venues (Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, Teatro Colon, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Herodes Atticus Theatre, and Epidaurus Theatre), and at numerous international festivals such as Ravinia, Saratoga, Wolf Trap, Athens, Istanbul, and Cervantino. His dazzling performances are frequently described as “unequalled” (Westdeutsche Zeitung) and “unparalleled” (Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee). Saluted for his “phenomenal technique” (The Spectator), his “sparkling playing resulting in fascinating interpretations” (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger), his “sovereign mastery” (Hamburger Abendblatt), Mr. Lefèvre has been guest soloist of great orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre national de France, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony, the China Philharmonic, the SWR, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and the Moscow Virtuosi; and he has worked with renowned conductors such as James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, JoAnn Falletta, Claus Peter Flor, Lawrence Foster, Jacek Kaspszyk, Jacques Lacombe, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Vladimir Spivakov, and Long Yu. He has revived the music of André Mathieu in concert in New York, Paris, London, Berlin and Shanghai, to name a few. His discography covers a vast repertoire, from John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto – which BBC Music Magazine considers the reference version – to Chopin’s 24 Preludes, for which critics “celebrate Alain Lefèvre,” placing his interpretation alongside the recordings of the “illustrious” Alicia de Larrocha, Ivan Moravec, and Arthur Rubinstein (Fanfare). He has won numerous prizes, including a JUNO, an Opus, 10 Felix awards (ADISQ), and the AIB Award (London) for “International personality of the year – Radio,” for his radio program broadcast on ICI Musique/RadioCanada. Alain Lefèvre is an Offi cer of the Order of Canada, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec, and Chevalier of the Pléiade Order.
Alain Lefèvre appears courtesy of Warner Classics.