Yannick Nézet-Séguin
conductor
Vita
Born in Montreal in 1975, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. At the age of 19, he met Carlo Maria Giulini, whom he accompanied during rehearsals and from whom he received formative inspiration. Following initial engagements with his own ensembles and as chorus master at the Opéra de Montréal, Nézet-Séguin was appointed Music Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal in 2000, a position to which he is now bound by a lifetime contract. From 2008 to 2018, he was head of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, which subsequently named him Honorary Conductor. He has helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012, and since 2018 he has also been Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he will premiere a new opera by Mason Bates in the 2025-26 season and will lead new productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In Europe, Nézet-Séguin has worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and is an Honorary Member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with which he appears every summer season at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden; he has also performed the seven major Mozart operas there. In 2026, he takes on the New Year’s Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he has regularly performed and toured since 2010. As an opera conductor, Nézet-Séguin has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, London’s Royal Opera House, La Scala in Milan, and the Vienna Staatsoper. He has received five Grammy Awards for his recordings, including in 2025 for the soundtrack to the film Maestro. His most recent release is a complete Brahms symphony cycle with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Yannick Nézet-Séguin holds several honorary doctorates, is a Companion of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and an Officier de l’Ordre de Montréal.
Lucerne Festival debut on 13 September 2011 with the Vienna Philharmonic in a program of works by Messiaen, Debussy, Schubert, and Ravel.
March 2025
