Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin experienced one of the swiftest ascents among early-21st-century podium figures. Having directed nearly every prominent Canadian ensemble before reaching thirty, he built a wide-ranging global profile.

Born in Montreal on March 6, 1975, Nézet-Séguin took up the piano at five and resolved at ten to become a conductor after hearing the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal led by Charles Dutoit. At the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec he pursued studies in piano, chamber music, conducting, and composition, later adding choral conducting at Westminster Choir College. At fourteen he began coaching the Chœur polyphonique de Montréal at the Montréal Cathedral and assumed its full leadership in 1994 at nineteen. That year, having long admired Carlo Maria Giulini, he received an invitation to shadow the celebrated maestro for twelve months, attending rehearsals and performances while collaborating closely with him during Giulini’s final season before the public. In 1995 Nézet-Séguin established Le Chapelle de Montréal, a vocal-instrumental ensemble initially devoted to Baroque repertoire, and remained its director until 2002.

Between 1998 and 2002 he served as chorus master and assistant conductor at L’Opéra de Montréal. In 2000 he was appointed artistic director and principal conductor of Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal. He held the post of conductor with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018, succeeding Valery Gergiev, and simultaneously acted as principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2014. In 2012 he succeeded Dutoit as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Six years later he became music director of the Metropolitan Opera after a series of annual guest engagements, also receiving the title of Honorary Conductor from the Rotterdam Philharmonic in 2018. The next year the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal granted him a lifetime contract after multiple extensions.

Nézet-Séguin’s recordings appear chiefly on Deutsche Grammophon, though he has worked with other labels as well. He remains active as a pianist, appearing on numerous discs as soloist or accompanist. In 2019 he issued several albums, among them a Verdi project with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montréal and bass Ildar Abdrazakov. An especially prolific 2021 brought eight releases, including his debut solo-piano recording, Introspection, and a Grammy Award-winning account of Florence Price’s First and Third Symphonies with the Philadelphia Orchestra. That same year Patrick Delisle-Crevier published the biography Raconte-moi Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2022 Nézet-Séguin directed the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a Beethoven symphony cycle and accompanied Lisa Batiashvili on the album Secret Love Letters, again with the Philadelphia Orchestra.