Announced today, Orchestre Métropolitain has named Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor, for life.
“This is a special day…” said Nézet-Séguin in a press release statement. “Montreal is my hometown, my home port. It’s where I was born, where I grew up and where I received my musical training […] And the Orchestre Métropolitain is the first of my musical families.
Lifetime appointments are exceedingly rare in the orchestra world. Other examples include Herbert von Karajan’s lifelong association with Berlin Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta’s tenure with the Israel Philharmonic.
Nézet-Séguin’s previous contract with the Orchestre Métropolitain was last signed in 2015, and extended until the end of the season 2020-2021. In May 2015, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra announced the end of Nézet-Séguin’s tenure as principal conductor at the end of the 2017–2018 season. In the meantime, he was appointed Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, which lead some to wonder whether he would be able to renew his commitment, given the demands of this new role. Not to mention his contract with Philadelphia Orchestra which continues through 2025–26.
At the end of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s European tour in 2017, Yannick Nézet-Séguin said he intended to stay “as long as the musicians want him”, but there was still a lot of doubt as to if he would continue his commitment to the OM.
If there was any doubt, the announcement today makes his priorities known.
“This is an open-ended contract with the conductor everyone dreams of having on their podium, who also happens to be a Montrealer in love with his city and a person with whom our musicians have developed a sound, musically rewarding and extraordinarily human relationship and it is beyond value,” says Jean R. Dupré, president and CEO of the Orchestre Métropolitain.
Nézet-Séguin will appear for the season-opening concert of the Orchestre Métropolitain and soloist Marina Thibeault on September 28-29, 2019.
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