At the start of the 2008/2009 season, YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He remains Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, a position he took up in March 2000; during his tenure, he has dramatically raised the orchestra’s standards and popularity, sharing with his musicians rigor and passion for music of many different styles.

Following his 2004 European debut with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, he swiftly established a fine reputation in Europe, appearing with a wide range of orchestras, among them the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Frankfurt and Flemish Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Sydney Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Northern Sinfonia, receiving re-invitations across the board. He is now a regular guest conductor of many leading orchestras, such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Orchestre National de France, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. During 2008, he made acclaimed debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

In Canada, Yannick Nézet-Séguin regularly conducts the Toronto Symphony and has worked with all the orchestras of note, including the National Centre of Arts Orchestra (Ottawa), the Montreal Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Victoria Symphony, of which he was Principal Guest Conductor between 2003 and 2006.

Debuts in the 2008/09 season include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

A native of Montreal, his productions for L’Opéra de Montréal have included Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Puccini’s Turandot, and La bohème. His most recent Canadian productions have been Gounod’s Faust for Canadian Opera (2007) and Madama Butterfly in Montreal (2008). In August 2008 he made an outstandingly successful Salzburg Festival debut conducting the Mozarteum Orchestra in Mozart’s Mass in C minor and a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with a cast led by Rolando Villazon and Nino Machaidze. In May 2009 he will make his debut at the Netherlands Opera conducting Janácek’s The Makropoulos Case, with further productions scheduled for 2009/10 and 2011/12. Forthcoming debuts also include the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

He records for the dynamic Canadian company ATMA Classique. All his recordings with his Orchestre Métropolitain have received prizes and been favorably reviewed by the international music press. His most recent recordings – La Mer (a collection of works by Debussy, Britten, and Mercure) and Bruckner Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre Métropolitain – have been widely acclaimed. His first live recording with the Rotterdam Philharmonic was released in October 2008.