Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Yannick Nézet-Séguin was born in Montreal. Since 2018 he has been the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York. He has also been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 and artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal since 2000. From 2008 to 2018 he was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and from 2008 to 2014 he was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also performs regularly with orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, of which he is an honorary member.

In 2008 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with Roméo et Juliette; since then, he has conducted at opera houses including the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Milan, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Dutch National Opera. In 2010 he made his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera conducting Carmen; he has appeared annually at the Met ever since. In 2021 he took part in an important historical event when he conducted Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first work by a black composer to be performed at the Met. In 2022 he conducted the world premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours with Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara, and Blanchard’s second opera, Champion.

Highlights of the 2023/24 season include Dead Man Walking and Roméo et Juliette at the Met, and performances with the Berlin Philharmonic and the pianist Beatrice Rana. Along with annual subscription concerts he will perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Luxembourg, Paris, Hamburg and Baden-Baden, and give concert performances of Die Walküre on tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

As an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, he has most recently released his first solo piano album Introspection, violin concertos with Randall Goosby and the Philadelphia Orchestra and the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and choral directing at Westminster Choir College, before being mentored by Carlo Maria Giulini.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s numerous awards include an ECHO Klassik, the BBC Music Magazine Award and two Grammys. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada and in 2022 was honoured with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.