Long revered as one of America's "Big Five" orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra has had something of a rough ride in recent years. With the June 13th, 2010 announcement that its next artistic director will be 35-year-old Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Philadelphia seems to be aiming itself not just towards a more steady course, but one in which it can reclaim its title as a taste-making ensemble.
Born in Montreal in 1975, Nezet-Seguin was just three years ago was still largely unknown in the US, even among classical cognoscenti, but he has earned intense raves for his command of such composers as Ravel, such as in this performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra:
Since 2000, Nezet-Seguin has been artistic director and principal conductor of his native city's Orchestre Metropolitain and also holds posts as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (where he succeeded Valery Gergiev) and as principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic. (He will stay on in all of these roles during his initial years in Philadelphia.) Here's a sampling of his work in Rotterdam:
Nezet-Seguin studied conducting as well as piano, composition, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec in Montreal, and later studied with Italy's Carlo Maria Giulini. In his teenage years, he concentrated in choral conducting, studying for several summers with Joseph Flummerfeldt at the highly regarded Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Since the Philadelphia Orchestra's announcement became public on June 13th, much has been made of Nezet-Seguin's relative youth and his lack of previous name recognition amongst many American concertgoers. Born in Montreal in 1975, he is joining the ranks of Gustavo Dudamel at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert at the New York Phiharmonic--conductors whose youth and interest in music outside the classical canon have infused the classical scene with new vigor. (Even so, the Philadelphia Orchestra has a history of hiring younger talents: Leopold Stokowski became its music director at age 30, Eugene Ormandy, age 38; and Riccardo Muti, at age 39.)
But another commonality which yokes Nezet-Seguin to Dudamel and Gilbert--and in perhaps a more striking way than simply their age--is their outlook as three conductors who are all from the Americas. Even in the 21st century, many US orchestras still insist upon a European-born artistic director; what Dudamel, Gilbert, and Nezet-Seguin share is an ethos rooted in the hybridic, multicultural crossroads of America, even as they are firmly committed masters of the classical canon and traditions that hearken back to the 19th century.
Even with his relative youth, Nezet-Seguin has clear programming ideas, as he discussed in a video interview for Lincoln Center's "Great Performers" series:
Nezet-Seguin's appointment ends nearly a half decade of uncertainty at the orchestra, which has been plagued with organizational and financial issues. In 2006, Philadelphia announced that Christoph Eschenbach, who had been artistic director since 2003, would not continue past the 2007-08 season. (For the past four years, Charles Dutoit, in his duties as the orchestra's chief conductor, has been the most regular presence in Philadelphia, but hasn't been in a position to effect large changes.) In 2009, the group's chief executive and board chairman both hastily resigned (both have since replaced); a European tour was cancelled, its recording contract with the Finnish label Ondine ended, and an ambitious plan to stream concerts online was shelved. In addition, the orchestra has skirted some very serious financial problems that resulted in staff reductions at the orchestra and in pay and benefit concessions that were made by the Philadelphia musicians.
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
