NEW YORK, June 2 — Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin was named today as music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, succeeding James Levine who served 40 years in one of opera’s most prominent roles.
A relative upstart at just 41 years old, Nezet-Seguin will start as interim director in the 2017-18 season before taking over fully three years later. He simultaneously extended his job as head of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“Becoming the music director of the Metropolitan Opera is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me,” Nezet-Seguin said in a statement.
“I am truly honoured and humbled by the opportunity to succeed the legendary James Levine and to work with the extraordinary orchestra, chorus and staff of what I believe is the greatest opera company in the world,” he said.
Nezet-Seguin was selected quickly after the Met announced in April that the 72-year-old Levine would step down with the current season, ending a tenure in which he defined the institution and become one of the opera world’s most identifiable conductors.
Born in Montreal to academic parents, Nezet-Seguin was a piano prodigy and later took up choral conducting. He became music director of Montreal’s Orchestre Metropolitain in 2000.
He was named in 2010 as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the major classical institutions in the United States which is known for its international outreach.
He first came to the Met in 2009 as a guest conductor for a production of Bizet’s “Carmen” and has returned every year since. — AFP
