{"id":117210,"date":"2025-09-03T10:57:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T14:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117210"},"modified":"2025-09-03T10:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T14:57:39","slug":"scoop-finnish-conductor-john-storgards-named-8th-music-director-national-arts-centre-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/09\/03\/scoop-finnish-conductor-john-storgards-named-8th-music-director-national-arts-centre-orchestra\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Finnish Conductor John Storg\u00e5rds Named As The 8th Music Director Of The National Arts Centre Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Finnish
Finnish conductor John Storg\u00e5rds with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada (Photo: Curtis Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canada\u2019s National Arts Centre (NAC) announced today that Finnish conductor John Storg\u00e5rds will become the NAC Orchestra\u2019s 8th music director. His tenure begins with the 2026 \u2013 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Storg\u00e5rds will take over from Alexander Shelley, who will have held the position for 11 seasons when he leaves the role at the end of the 2025 \u2013 2026 season next July. Storg\u00e5rds is no stranger to the NAC Orchestra or its audience, having debuted as a guest conductor in 2013. He\u2019s also served as the orchestra\u2019s Principal Guest Conductor since 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more honoured, happy, and thrilled to become Music Director of Canada\u2019s National Arts Centre Orchestra, an orchestra I already love so deeply. When I look back at the highlights of each season, my concerts with the NAC Orchestra always stand out among the very best moments. Not only is it a fantastic orchestra, it is also a family of wonderful musicians and people, with whom I have felt a special bond from the very first time we worked together. I also look forward to strengthening my relationship with the Orchestra\u2019s devoted, enthusiastic, and justifiably proud audience, as well as with all Canadians,\u201d John Storg\u00e5rds<\/strong> says in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Finnish
Finnish conductor John Storg\u00e5rds (Photo: Marco Borggreve)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Storg\u00e5rds<\/h3>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the musicians of the NAC Orchestra, I am so pleased to welcome John Storg\u00e5rds as our next Music Director. Our weeks with John are always filled with challenging, profound, and exhilarating music-making. As an orchestra, we are completely in sync with John, with a depth of musical connection and trust that is truly special. His appointment marks a rare opportunity to expand an already superb relationship, adding a new layer of leadership and vision,\u201d comments Joanna G\u2019froerer<\/strong>, Principal Flute, NAC Orchestra.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed Finnish conductor is also a virtuoso violinist. That\u2019s how he began his career, performing with major orchestras across Northern Europe, and in Israel. It was as a concertmaster, leading the other violinists, that he became interested in conducting, and went back to study the art of leading an orchestra.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s served as the Music Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. Storg\u00e5rds has also conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre symphonique de Montr\u00e9al, along with the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Today, along with his new gig in Ottawa, he serves as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n

As a music director, he\u2019s known for his imaginative programming, including focusing on the work of neglected Nordic and Finnish composers. He conducted the NAC Orchestra\u2019s first-ever performances of Rachmaninoff\u2019s Symphony No. 3, Vaughan Williams\u2019s Symphony No. 5, Nielsen\u2019s Symphony No. 2, and Sibelius\u2019s Symphony No. 3.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a strong advocate for contemporary music, and has programmed and performed music by Kaija Saariaho, Sunleif Rasmussen, Sebastian Fagerlund, Betsy Jolas, Outi Tarkiainen, and Victoria Poleva, among others with the NAC Orchestra.<\/p>\n

John is a supporter of new talent and helping to develop the next generation, and he\u2019ll be involved in the orchestra\u2019s many programs for emerging composers, conductors, and artists from across Canada.<\/p>\n

He still maintains a career as a performing violinist, and he often combines solo and conducting engagements.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Storg\u00e5rds is an exceptional conductor and artist, who has developed a tremendous rapport with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, one felt by both the musicians and audiences. He is passionate about working with Canadian guest artists and composers and will build on the NAC Orchestra\u2019s long-standing commitment to furthering Canadian music nationally and internationally. We greatly look forward to welcoming him as our Music Director in September 2026,\u201d comments President and CEO of the National Arts Centre Christopher Deacon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We wish the NAC Orchestra and John Storg\u00e5rds a long, continuing, and fruitful partnership.<\/p>\n

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Canada\u2019s National Arts Centre (NAC) announced today that Finnish conductor John Storg\u00e5rds will become the NAC Orchestra\u2019s 8th music director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":117212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,875,39,41221,9570],"tags":[5620,4075],"yst_prominent_words":[8835,13078,13079,24679,15495,6648,13072,10454,10453,13077,36257],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-NEWS-2025-09-03T105412.863.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-uuu","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117214,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117210\/revisions\/117214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117210"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=117210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}