BIOGRAPHY

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Since the beginning of the 2008–2009 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been Valery Gergiev’s successor as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2010 he was appointed Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a position he will assume at the beginning of the 2012–2013 season. In addition, he is Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and since 2000 he has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. Educated at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in his hometown of Montréal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has worked with all major Canadian orchestras and was first Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2006. After a series of successful European debuts during the 2004–2005 season, he has become a regular guest on the podiums of many leading orchestras, including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 2009 he made his BBC Proms debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Recent highlights include tours with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) and Philadelphia Orchestra. Yannick Nézet-Séguin first conducted the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Mozart Week in 2010. In June of 2010 he conducted the Orchestre Métropolitain together with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in his first performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, followed by his debut with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Debuts during the 2010–2011 season will take him to the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Yannick Nézet-Séguin has also made a name for himself internationally as an opera conductor: in December 2009, he made his widely acclaimed debut with Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera, where he returns in November 2010 for a new production of Don Carlo. In 2008 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival conducting Roméo et Juliette; in the summer of 2010 he conducts Gounod’s opera as well as Don Giovanni. For the Nederlandse Opera he has conducted The Makropoulos Case, Turandot and most recently, in June 2010, Poulenc’s La voix humaine and Debussy’s L’Enfant prodigue. During the 2010–2011 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his debut at La Scala Milan (Roméo et Juliette) and will return to the Opera de Montréal with Salome. His debut at the Royal Opera House in London has been scheduled for 2011–2012. Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first three recordings with the Rotterdam Philharmonic were released during the 2009–2010 season and include an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works. His recordings with the Orchestre Métropolitain also won numerous awards.