Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Yannick Nézet-Séguin was born in Montreal. Since 2018 he has been the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and since 2012 he has been music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has been 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 debut at the Metropolitan Opera conducting Carmen; he has appeared annually at the Met ever since. In an important historical event, he conducted Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the first work by a Black composer to be performed at the Met; he has also conducted the world premieres of Kevin Puts’s The Hours and Blanchard’s second opera, Champion, at the Met, receiving a Grammy Award for his recording of the latter opera.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season have included concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna Musikverein, on the American West Coast and for the 150th anniversary of the Palais Garnier, and a second European tour with the Orchestre Métropolitain. He will return to the Vienna Philharmonic to conduct their 2026 New Year’s concert.

As an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his releases include the solo piano album Introspection, symphonies by the African-American composer Florence Price (Grammy Award, Diapason d’Or), the soundtrack of Maestro with Bradley Cooper and the London Symphony Orchestra (Grammy), the complete symphonies of Brahms with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and most recently, with Daniil Trifonov and the Philadelphia Orchestra, My American Story and, in March 2025, Destination Rachmaninov.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin 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.

His numerous awards include an ECHO Klassik, the BBC Music Magazine Award and five Grammys. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada and in 2022 was honoured with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.