Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Introduction

At 35 years old, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most highly respected and sought-after conductors on today’s international classical music scene and has been widely praised by audiences, critics and artists alike for his musicianship, dedication, and charisma.  Mr. Nézet-Séguin is Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and in June 2010 was appointed Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra with immediate effect and will take up the full title of Music Director from the 2012-2013 season.  He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic director and Principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal).

Biography

At 35 years old, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most highly respected and sought-after conductors on today’s international classical music scene and has been widely praised by audiences, critics and artists alike for his musicianship, dedication, and charisma.  Mr. Nézet-Séguin is Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and in June 2010 was appointed Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra with immediate effect and will take up the full title of Music Director from the 2012-2013 season.  He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic director and Principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal).

A native of Montreal, Mr. Nézet-Séguin has conducted all of the major Canadian orchestras and was Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony from 2003 to 2006. Mr. Nézet-Séguin made his European debut in 2004 and has since appeared regularly with many of Europe’s leading orchestras including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and made his BBC Proms debut in 2009 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Recent conducting highlights include highly successful tours of the Far East (Summer 2008) and North America (Winter 2010) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as his Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra debuts in the U.S. and his Philharmonic debut at the 2010 Salzburg Mozartwoche.

Summer 2010 includes his first performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a thousand) with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Orchestre Métropolitain in June 2010, his debut with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra and his return to the BBC Proms with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to his regular Rotterdam Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra commitments Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s 2010-11 season will include a tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich) and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

A notable operatic conductor, Mr. Nézet-Séguin recently made his critically acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in December 2009 with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, and will return there in November 2010 for a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo.  For Netherland’s Opera he has conducted Janacek's The Makropoulos Case and Puccini’s Turandot with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and he led Poulenc’s La voix humaine and Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue as part of the Rotterdam Opera Days in June 2010. This summer Mr. Nézet-Séguin will return to the Salzburg Festival to conduct Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as a revival of his 2008 production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg.

2010 – 2011 includes Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s debut for La Scala, Milan (Roméo et Juliette) and a return to Montreal Opera (Salome).  He will make his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2011-12.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s first three Rotterdam Philharmonic recordings on the EMI/Virgin label, all released during the 2009-2010 season, comprise an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works, the Beethoven and Korngold violin concertos performed by Renaud Capuçon, and “Fantasy: A Night at the Opera” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud. Future releases include Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and La Morte de Cléopâtreon for BIS Records, and his discography also includes several award-winning recordings with the Orchestre Métropolitain on the ATMA Classique label.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Montreal, and continued his studies with renowned conductors, most notably the Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini.  Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s honors include a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Virginia-Parker Award from the Canada Council in 2000, numerous Prix Opus from the Conseil québécois de la musique, and Canada’s highly coveted National Arts Centre Award.

Press Reviews

For full reviews, please see the press section on Yannick's website


CONCERT REVIEWS

This Mahler was big and beautiful
'This was a stunning performance, easily the best live Eighth I have heard. [...] There is no need to go to Europe, or even the United States, to find a bona fide Mahler conductor. All of those trademark YNS twists and turns and dips and gestures melded seamlessly into the score. There was no feeling of discrepancy between what Mahler wanted, what the conductor asked for, and what the performers gave him.'
Arthur Kaptainis, The Gazette, 21 June 2010
Mahler Symphony no.8, Orchestre Metropolitain / National Arts Centre Orchestra, Salle Wilfried-Pelletier, 20 June 2010

**** 'Stravinsky’s miniature tone-poem Fireworks [was] an exquisitely controlled display of musical catherine wheels, golden rain and roman candles. 
[The real pyrotechnics] was a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony breathless in its intensity, yet never driven, and everywhere delicious in the bright detail of its dance. The coiled-spring opening was a huge upbeat to the flute’s lead as dancemaster--and what fun the conductor had with the second violins. A sudden segue into the dark, rapid pulse of the second movement; then a light-footed, scurrying Scherzo propelled into a finale of intense and thrillingly levitating energy.'
Hilary Finch, The Times, 14 April 2010

***** 'I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more brilliant or revealing account of Stravinsky’s Fireworks. The apparent madness of assembling such a huge orchestra for a mere four minutes of music seemed almost justified and, of course, it effectively lit the touch-paper for the Beethoven Seventh. This was, in a word, combustible. Like the Stravinsky, it was up there with the rare and indelible. Marrying his instinctive understanding of phrasal ebb and flow to thrilling rhythmic impetus Nezet-Seguin willed the LPO to an almost delirious dynamism. His telling and unexpected attacca from the first to second movement and again from bounding scherzo to headlong finale compounded an irresistible urgency that characterised even the sublime Allegretto. Stunning.'
Edward Seckerson, The Independent on Sunday, 11 April 2010


OPERA REVIEWS

'Getragen wird der Abend aber auch von Yannick Nézet-Séguin: Der momentan schwer angesagte kanadische Dirigent bietet mit dem sinnenfroh aufspielenden Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg und dem schlagkräftigen Wiener Staatsopernchor eine tolle Leistung. Hochromantik zum Träumen: duftig, blumig, gewalzert und, wenns sein muss, auch schmissig mit Tschingderassabum. Das Publikum tobt.'
Otto Paul Burkhardt, Südwest Presse, 12 August 2010
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Salzburg Festival

'Und Dirigent Yannick Nezet-Seguin machte dort weiter, wo er bei der Premiere mit sehr guter Leistung aufgehört hatte. Er animierte das Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg zu deutlichen Stellungnahmen, was bei dieser ins Glatte neigenden Musik eine gehörige Substanzaufwertung bewirkte. Größter Applaus, welch Überraschung.'
Der Standard, 11 August 2010
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Salzburg Festival

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducted a supreme ensemble that shifted effortlessly from the tight unit underpinning the soloists on stage to the poignant solo woodwind or harp that heralded the start of one of the singer's finer vocal performances.
George Jahn, Associated Press, 10 August 2010
Mozart: Don Giovanni, Salzburg Festival

The Metropolitan Opera's new Carmen has three outstanding elements - its Carmen, its Don José and the conductor - and their relative importance may well be in reverse order.”
Yannick Nézet-Séguin [...] makes a strong company debut and he does so in a counterintuitive way. His is not in the dominating, forceful manner that calls attention to the conductor's interpretation. He is not imposing like a Toscanini, Karajan or Muti. Instead, Nézet-Séguin shapes his concept around the vocal subtleties of each duet and ensemble as he encourages each singer to express his or her feelings. The result is an intimate, personal expression of emotions from the characters.
[...] This conductor breathes and flexes with the words, but he never sounds indulgent and most of his tempi are brisk. Act 2 is an excellent example of how he keeps a firm line as he and the singers build inexorably to the denouement.”
Steve Cohen, The World of Opera – The Opera Critic, 18 January 2010
Bizet: Carmen, Metropolitan Opera

Bizet lays on the Spanish local color in Carmen with a determination that foreshadows Puccini's Orientalisms in Turandot. But to his credit the rising Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in his Met debut, kept the score sounding quite French, insofar as that is possible, especially since the Guiraud recitatives are used in lieu of spoken dialogue. Nézet-Séguin began with a prelude that was almost disturbingly fast, yet it served as an apt point of departure for a vivacious reading that helped keep the proceedings lively.
George Loomis, Musical America, 4 January 2010
Bizet: Carmen, Metropolitan Opera


RECORDING REVIEWS

'This is sensational: Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Rotterdam will surely be one of those partnerships that magically adds up to more than the sum of its orchestral parts. There is a suppleness and vivid characterisation in the sound; Ravel's orchestration sparkles without ever sounding merely sumptuous. I defy you to not gasp with sheer pleasure at the build-up of the Daphnis suite, and the attention to detail and transparency in the evocative Mother Goose suite is spine-tingling. But surely the neglected Valses nobles et sentimentales should be separated from Ravel's climactic masterpiece La valse, whose overwhelming post-war deconstruction of the waltz deserves to be heard last. Brilliantly played and superbly recorded.'
Nicholas Kenyon, The Observer, 31 January 2010
CD: Ravel - Daphnis et Chloë, La Valse, etc. / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI)

***** 'From the outset of the Lever du jour section of the second Daphnis suite, Nézet-Séguin’s ear for Ravel’s evocation of the twilit moments before dawn, and the spectacular sunrise, are fabulous. [...] In the Pantomime, the palette of colour he finds in the flute section alone is ravishing, and I’ve heard few more exhilarating Bacchanales on disc. In La Valse, he conjures up the sense of the waltzers emerging from behind several gauzy curtains, and I like the way he segues into this masterpiece from the Valses nobles et sentimentales, as if the later piece were somehow the apotheosis of the earlier one. La Valse is Ravel’s wistful valedictory to the lost era of the Viennese waltz and Nézet-Séguin insinuates catastrophe into its climax. A charming, witty, instrumentally fastidious account of the Mother Goose suite completes the programme. I’ve not heard a more gorgeously played orchestral disc all year.'
Hugh Canning, The Times, 29 November 2009
CD: Ravel - Daphnis et Chloë, La Valse, etc. / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI)

**** 'This interpretation of Bruckner’s immense Symphony No. 8 has a plenitude of beautiful particulars. But the real accomplishment here has to do with duration--the way conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin maintains psychological urgency across long time spans. Gestures taper at leisure; phrases breathe, without losing energy. We don’t pass through the landscape of this symphony, we inhabit it. Indeed the adagio, at almost 30 minutes, is considerably longer than most performances of the movement, yet we would never say it is too slow.'
Elissa Poole, The Globe and Mail, 23 November 2009
CD: Bruckner Symphony no.8 / Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal (Atma)

Discography

Brahms: A German Requiem
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO CD Label, April 2010

Tenor Arias
Orchestre Metropotain / Marc Hervieux, tenor
ATMA Classique, March 2010

Fantasy: A Night at the Opera
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Emmanuel Pahud, flute
EMI Classics, January 2010

Ravel
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
EMI Classics, November 2009

Bruckner: Symphony no.8
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, October 2009

Beethoven & Korngold: Violin Concertos
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Renaud Capucon, violin
Virgin Classics, October 2009

Gounod: Roméo et Juliette (DVD)
A coproduction of ORF and UNITEL in cooperation with Salzburg Festival
Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg
Deutsche Grammphon, January 2009 (recorded August 2008)

Bruckner: Symphony no.9
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, August 2008

Beethoven: Symphony no.3 'Eroïca' / Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
RPhO CD Label, March 2008

Pierre Lapointe en concert dans La Forêt des Mal-Aimés
Orchestre Metropolitain / Pierre Lapointe, singer
Audiogram, November 2007

La Mer • Debussy, Britten, Mercure
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, November 2007

Bruckner: Symphony no.7
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, February 2007

Weill / Rota
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, September 2006

Saint Saëns: Symphony no.3 
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, March 2006

Mozart: Lieder
Suzie LeBlanc (soprano), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (fortepiano)
ATMA Classique, January 2006

Kurt Weill
Orchestre Metropolitain, Diane Dufresne (soprano), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (direction and piano)
ATMA Classique, March 2005

Flemish Connexion Volume 5 
Vlaamse Radio Orkest
Etcetera, October 2004

Arianna a Naxos 
David DQ Lee (countertenor), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (piano)
ATMA Classique, September 2004

Mahler: Symphony no.4
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, February 2004

Conversations 
Alain Trudel (trombone), Yannick Nézet-Séguin (piano)
ATMA Classique, September 2003

Nino Rota
Orchestre Metropolitain
ATMA Classique, February 2003

Links

Yannick Nezet-Seguin's personal website

Philadelphia Orchestra

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Contact

Rona Eastwood

Rupert Chandler

Charlotte Yuen

Worldwide Management: Askonas Holt

Philadelphia Orchestra appointment

Yannick Nézet-Séguin swiftly established a reputation with all the orchestras in his native Canada and earned the title of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal in 2000.

Four years later, his European debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse marked the start of a notable series of debuts and an unbroken sequence of re-invitations from over 30 different orchestras, including Sydney Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.  In 2008, he made his highly-successful Salzburg Festival debut conducting a new production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette (with Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra).  At the start of the 2008-2009 season, he succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  In 2009, he made his BBC Proms debut with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and will return later this year with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

His unforgettable debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra came in December 2008 conducting Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 6 and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no. 2 and he established an instant rapport with the musicians.  His equally successful second visit followed in December 2009 and on New Year's Eve, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera's new Carmen.  With Rotterdam Philharmonic, he has conducted notable productions of Makropoulos Case and Turandot for Netherlands Opera and he returns to the 2010 Salzburg Festival to conduc trevivals of Don Giovanni (with the Vienna Philharmonic) and of  Roméo et Juliette.  Forthcoming operatic debuts include La Scala, Milan and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. 

On June 14, 2010 he was announced The Philadelphia Orchestra's Music Director designate with immediate effect, and will take up the full position of Music Director from the 2012-2013 season.  As Designate, he will lead two weeks of subscription concerts during 2010-2011 and four weeksin 2011/2012.  Next season's programmes are Haydn's Symphony no.100 (Military) and Mahler's Fifth Symphony (October 2010), returning three months later for Debussy Nocturnes and the orchestra's first Mozart Requiem in 20 years (January 2011).

In his first season as Music Director (2012-2013), he will conduct 6 weeks of subscription programmes in each of the following two seasons, will conduct 14 weeks of concerts, inclusive of tours.  His commitment during the seasons 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 will rise to fifteen weeks, inclusive of tours.  He will also conduct a regular summer week.

2010/2011 guest conducting includes return visits to the Staatskapelle Dresden, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Wiener Philharmoniker and debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker and the orchestras of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bayerischer Rundunk (Munich), Chicago Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome). 

For further details please see full biography and the following weblinks:

Yannick's website
Philadelphia Orchestra
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Gergiev Festival
BBC Proms
EMI Classics

Schedule

Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels
9 September 2010 20.00

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
10 September 2010 20.15

Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris
12 September 2010

Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris
23 September 2010 20.00

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
24 September 2010 20.15

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
25 September 2010 20.15

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
30 September 2010 20.15

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
1 October 2010 20.15

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
2 October 2010 20.15

De Doelen Hall, Rotterdam
3 October 2010 14.15

Philharmonie Berlin
21 October 2010 20.00

Philharmonie Berlin
22 October 2010 20.00

Philharmonie Berlin
23 October 2010 20.00

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
29 October 2010 14.00

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
30 October 2010 20.00

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia
31 October 2010 14.00

Metropolitan Opera, New York
22 November 2010 20.00

Metropolitan Opera, New York
26 November 2010 20.00

Publicity Downloads

Photo 1 credit Marco Borggreve

Photo 2 credit Marco Borggreve

Photo 3 credit Marco Borggreve

Photo 4 credit Marco Borggreve