Carl St.Clair to Step Down from Pacific Symphony After 35 Years

St.Clair will be succeeded by Alexander Shelley at the conclusion of the 2025/26 season

Conductor Carl St.Clair, who has led the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California, for 35 years, is set to stand down from the podium at the conclusion of the 2025/26 season — and Alexander Shelley will be his successor.

St.Clair's work has been synonymous with the orchestra's growth in recent years: in 2019, the orchestra was invited to join the top tier of League of American Orchestras, and the ensemble is also the largest orchestra formed in America in the last 50 years (when the figures are controlled for budget).

St.Clair arrived at the Pacific Symphony in 1990, having been a student of Leonard Bernstein and the assistant conductor to Seiji Ozawa at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, his achievements have included leading the orchestra in its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, and major tours of China in 2018 and Europe in 2006.

Alongside his time at the Pacific Symphony, St.Clair has maintained a 27-year relationship with Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal (Germany) as well as undertaking a 10-year tenure as Music Director with the National Symphony of Costa Rica.

From 2008 to 2010, he was General Music Director of Komische Oper Berlin, and also served as General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle (GNTS) in Weimar.

"I’m very blessed, that’s all I know," St.Clair said. "I’m from a town of 36 people. I could never have dreamed what’s transpired in my life."

"It’s been a special symbiotic relationship, and not every community has that. The community has grown with us step by step. We needed to grow like an oak tree. It’s the things you don’t see that held us through the ’93 financial dip, through 2006 and 2008, through the pandemic. Through all these dips we continued to grow. And as the relationship grew so did our respect for one another and the realization that we needed one another and that together we can accomplish great things."

"[I am] looking forward to growing my relationship with Pacific Symphony’s distinguished musicians as we shape our collective sound and push the boundaries of what’s possible," said Alexander Shelley.