Yannick Nézet-Séguin Appointed by Met Opera
Questions Remain about Gelb's Control
By: Susan Hall - Jun 02, 2016
Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra where he will continue, assumes the role at the Met Opera in the 2020-21 season. He is a wonderful conductor of opera. What remains to be seen is Peter Gelb's role as "artistic director" of the opera company. Many first-rate conductors have not accepted the role because Gelb has insisted on control. The Board may not allow Gelb to continue to assert himself in artistic matters.
Nézet-Séguin has said that he will become active in the Met's musical affairs soon, but he will conduct only two operas in the 2017-18 season. In 2020-21 he will conduct only five.
Nézet-Séguin is represented by Askonas Holt, a sign that this position is freed from Columbia Artists Management.
They describe his career: Mr. Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Montreal and choral conducting at the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey before going on to study with renowned conductors, most notably the Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini. His honours include Musical America’s Artist of the Year (2016), Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s highly coveted National Arts Centre Award and the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts awarded by the Quebec government. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Quebec in Montreal (2011), Curtis Institute in Philadelphia (2014) and Westminster Choir College of Rider University (2015). He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2012.