The NAC Orchestra is entering a new chapter with its new Music Director, internationally acclaimed conductor John Storgårds. Alexander Shelley ends his tenure, which began in the 2015/16 season, with the end of the 2025/26 season.
“While this is my first season as Music Director, I have worked with the NAC Orchestra for more than a decade. From the very beginning, I felt a powerful and undeniable connection with the musicians and our audiences. Now, as Music Director, I can’t wait to spend more time with good friends and make new ones as we share music that will excite us, challenge us, uplift us, and most importantly, bring us together,” says John Storgårds, Music Director, NAC Orchestra in a statement.
John Storgårds’ first season features a number of Canadian soloists who are beginning to make their mark on the international classical music scene, including Élisabeth Pion, the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition gold laureate, Kevin Chen, the second-prize winner at the 19th International Chopin Piano Competition, renowned violinist James Ehnes, and pianist Angela Hewitt, who will be collaborating with John Storgårds for the first time. In addition Bernard Labadie and La Chapelle de Québec will perform a program of Bach cantatas.
The season also includes a focus on British Columbia composer Jean Coulthard (1908–2000) through a major performance and recording project.
NAC Orchestra 2026/27
Along with Canadian artists, the upcoming season will see a string of noted international artists, including violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Hilary Hahn, and French hornist Ben Goldscheider. Along with music from the Western classical canon, programs will also showcase Caribbean rhythms, led by Principal Youth Conductor and Community Ambassador Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser with vocalist Jah’Mila, and other family friendly concerts with dance and circus.
The season will opens with a piano program featuring New Zealand conductor Gemma New and Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone. On the program is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Several young conductors will return to the NAC Orchestra podium, including Ryan Bancroft, Stephanie Childress, and Roderick Cox, while David Robertson will make his conducting debut.
Also at NAC: Dance & Theatre
The NAC Dance season will open with Irish choreographer Michael KeeganDolan with MÁM. Later in 2026/27, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba will offer the best of modern Cuban artistry.
Guillaume Côté returns with Midsummer Night Dreams for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s 1595 play. Ebnflōh Dance Company’s 2par2 spotlights emerging choreographic voices within Quebec’s Hip-Hop scene.
NAC Dance and Indigenous Theatre will co-present Matriarchs Uprising, a festival curated by Olivia C. Davies as a platform for Indigenous women to redefine the future of contemporary dance and
storytelling.
Indigenous Theatre presents Waiting for Godot — Inuktitut, which reimagines Samuel Beckett’s iconic play through a cultural lens as created by a collective of Inuit translators and artists.
Co-produced by NAC Indigenous and French Theatre, Innu artist Soleil Launière’s Pakuneu is a multidisciplinary work grounded in Innu cosmology. The production fuses theatre, krumping, song, and video to explore the possible life paths of a child born in prison.
In a NAC Indigenous Theatre and NAC English Theatre co-production, Margaret Laurence’s landmark novel The Diviners is adapted by Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan, and directed by Krista Jackson.
Canadian artists are the focus of English Theatre. Ins Choi, whose play Kim’s Convenience was presented at the NAC before becoming a hit television series, returns with his latest award-winning work, Son of a Preacherman.
The Stratford production of Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s The King James Bible Play, directed by Nina Lee Aquino extends the reach of this Canadian work, as does the presentation of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, which comes to the NAC after its 2025 Canadian debut at Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver.
NAC French Theatre sees the return of Etienne Lou in Je comprends. Respect. The autobiographical story combines theatre and HipHop, and recruits local dancers. French Theatre Artistic Director Mani Soleymanlou returns to the stage in Bashir Lazhar (2007) by Evelyne de la Chenelière and directed by Marie Brassard.
Alice Ronfard brings together a cast of more than 30 for the ambitious L’Orestie. Joël Pommerat returns to the NAC with Les Petites Filles modernes (titre provisoire) for audiences aged 13 and up.
Music Director John Storgårds: The Interview
As the NAC Orchestra’s longstanding Principal Guest Director, stepping into the Music Director role means John Storgårds won’t need formal introductions, among other things.
For Storgårds, it was a chance to deepen his relationship with the orchestra and its musicians.
“It’s built on something that […] was already strong between the orchestra and myself, and that’s why I became the Principal Guest Director for the orchestras many years ago,” he says. “The feeling has only become stronger.”
He says that there were general hints about his taking on the larger position even before a formal job offer was made. The Finnish maestro is, however, also a violin virtuoso, as well as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra already. He’s also Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra (based in Rovaniemi).
“I had many other things on the go, permanent responsibilities in various areas,” he notes. “But then it came to the stage where I really got the feeling that it’s a kind of a now or never thing.”
There were other factors that drew him to the job, outside of a very positive existing relationship with the NAC Orchestra.
“There’s so much good things about not only the commitment of the orchestra musicians, but also the committee of people, the people and the government support,” he says.
“I got the feeling that come on, I’m not getting any younger.”
Season 2026/27: Canadian & International Music
He says that his immersion in Ottawa will come in stages, and that his other commitments may also change over time.
“We’ll be building up the success,” he says. “If you look up my first season with the orchestra, it’s only about six weeks.” That came about by mutual agreement. For his second season, that will increase to eight weeks, then in subsequent seasons, from 10 to 12 weeks.
That doesn’t mean his involvement is minimal, however.
“I have been very much involved already with the full planning of what the orchestra will be doing this season,” he says. “I’m of course already involved with the big picture,” John adds.
“For me, one essential thing is that this is kind of a continuation of something that is already very strong that is there.” That extends from the orchestra to Ottawa classical music audiences, and orchestra supporters in general. “They are used to me also there. They know something about my taste for repertoire, and also that I am playing sometimes.”
The focus on Canadian composers is new to Storgårds’ repertoire. “I haven’t been so much involved with so many Canadian composers,” he says. He’s looking forward to deepening his knowledge. “That’s something that I’m really into at the moment, and getting to know the repertoire,” he says. He’s looking not only at contemporary Canadian composers, but artists from different eras.
“Of course there will also be some firsts for me collaborating with Canadian artists.” He’s worked with piano virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin previously. “Finally for the first time I’m working with Angela Hewitt, and it’s about time. I’m looking forward to that.”
The season will see him working with several Canadian composers. “I came up to eight Canadian composers. I think that’s a good number. There are interesting things there.”
That includes the focus on Jean Coulthard. “It stands out that I’m doing a lot of music by Jean Coulthard. I didn’t know anything about her or her music, or anything at all. And then I was given some scores,” he explains. “I found it really interesting. It’s obvious that she was a composer with a lot of skills and knowledge.” Her work incorporates various styles according to the effects she wanted to create, including influences form late Romantic to Impressionist to modern. “It makes it very interesting to see [music that is] from different times in her career,” John adds.
“There are so many things that have rarely or not properly recorded at all,” he notes. “Her first symphony as far as I know hasn’t been performed in full for 75 years. I’m very much into this and studying her music,” Storgårds says.
“My first recording project with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the first disc we are doing together, is a Coulthard disc.”
Along with Canadian music, Storgårds has worked in some of the pieces and composers he loves.
“I have a habit of bringing with me Scandinavian or Nordic music,” he says. “Also Baltic composers.” He tends to focus on composers whose works are not so well known.
Northern music often resonates with Canadian audiences. “At the moment it’s getting stronger than ever, between Canada and the European north,” he notes. “The world is crazy, but being an artist now, and being from Finland and having this situation now, it feels like it’s really a good moment.”
Flexible Programming
“It will also be interesting for me to bring in music that is interesting for me.” He cites Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5, which is not often presented outside Europe. “Now in my first season, I’m doing Dvořák Symphony No. 3, also in Europe it’s seldom played. It’s a masterpiece,” John adds.
“This kind of thing is probably what I’ll be continuing with in the following seasons.”
Over the years, he’s amassed a considerable repertoire already. “Because I have a wide repertoire myself. And being a violinist, and growing up from the chamber music field, I know so much repertoire that fits into different sizes of orchestra,” he continues.
Storgårds enjoys the flexibility of the NAC Orchestra, and is looking forward to exploring that aspect further. “It can do smaller things, and it can sometimes do bigger things.” He mentions Mahler and Bruckner works that require a large orchestra. “That’s how you build up an orchestra.”
Indigenous Artists & More
There are a number of concerts and other matters in the coming season that he’s particularly looking forward to.
“Of course we are part of the whole National Arts Centre,” he says. “Nowadays, Indigenous connections are important. That is natural for me too.” He points to his Lapland Chamber Orchestra. “With that chamber orchestra I’ve been involved with collaborating with Indigenous artists.”
He’s getting to know Canada’s roster of Indigenous artists and composers. “This is very interesting too. I’m looking forward to it,” he says.
“One thing that I am particularly waiting for is Haydn Creation, because I’ve never done it.
I will do the Creation, and that’s a nice thing,” John says.
John Storgårds performs Kimmo Hakola: A même les échos for solo violin:
Final Thoughts
Moving from Principal Guest Director to Music Director means being able to enjoy the deeper relationships, and the broader possibilities that come along with a deeper commitment.
“And of course I am looking forward to ending a concert with Sibelius Six and Seven, and I’ve never done these with the orchestra before,” he says.
“This is my home,” he adds. As such, he can work on his favourites too. He points out that the two Sibelius symphonies are not often paired in North American programs. “To combine No. 6 and 7, it makes a lot of sense, and I’m looking forward to that.” The NAC Orchestra will be performing the two on December 6 and 7, 2026.
Other eagerly anticipated moments include Hilary Hahn’s return to Ottawa on May 26 and 27, 2027.
“Hilary Hahn, we are doing a world premiere of a piece written for her by a Danish composer,” Storgårds says. “I haven’t played with her in years,” he notes. She’s bringing a NACO commission for the world premiere, a new concerto for solo violin and orchestra by Søren Nils Eichberg.
“We’re bringing that to Toronto too,” he adds. The NAC Orchestra and Hahn will perform at Roy Thomson Hall on May 28, 2027.
“Greetings to Toronto. That’s a place I like too.”
Season Details
- Find details of the NAC Orchestra 2026/27 season [HERE].
- Find details for the NAC Orchestra’s May 2027 performance in Toronto [HERE].
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