Yannick Nézet-Séguin was only 10 years old when he decided to become a conductor. “I didn’t have any idea how complex or how multi-layered it would be,” he recalled in a 2019 interview on Fresh Air, “and especially how fantastically universal, in a way, it needs to be.”
In time, Nézet-Séguin learned those and many other lessons, on his way to becoming the multitasking maestro he is today: music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Metropolitan Opera, along with Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal in his old hometown. Now, in the spirit of paying it forward, he has launched The Yannick Nézet-Séguin Mentorship Program: a training and development initiative, created in partnership with Rolex, that will support talented young conductors in the early stages of their careers.
The program, announced today, will initially admit four conductors, each of whom will have the chance to work with two renowned institutions: The Philadelphia Orchestra, focusing on symphonic repertoire; and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, with singers from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. At the end of this workshop period, Nézet-Séguin will select two conductors for a year-long mentorship, running from September 2027 through August 2028.
During that year, each of the two conductors in the program will study with and shadow Nézet-Séguin, and take part in workshops with four partner orchestras: Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Met Opera Orchestra, and The Chamber Orchestra of Europe. They will also receive stipends for their participation, and career guidance from Askonas Holt, one of the industry’s leading artist management companies.
In some ways the new mentorship program reproduces a development arc that Nézet-Séguin experienced himself. At age 12, he enrolled at the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec, as a concert pianist. He studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. At 19, he apprenticed in Italy with Carlo Maria Giulini, shadowing the maestro for more than a year. In 2000, Nézet-Séguin became music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain, renewing his term repeatedly as his career advanced; the organization eventually offered him a lifetime contract.
“Yannick has always said that conducting is, at its heart, an act of teaching, and this program extends that conviction to a new scale,” Fabienne Voisin, President and CEO of Orchestre Métropolitain, says in a statement. “We’re proud to join all the partners to help pass on not just technique, but the values of collaboration and authenticity that have defined his career.”
Ryan Fleur, President and CEO of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, echoes this enthusiasm for the new initiative. “Developing the next generation of conductors requires more than podium time; it requires meaningful access to the artistic, institutional, and community relationships that shape great music directors,” he says. “The Philadelphia Orchestra is proud to join Yannick and our distinguished partners in giving these talented conductors the experience, guidance, and support to lead with excellence, authenticity, and humanity.”
For his part, Nézet-Séguin describes the program as a welcome opportunity to expand representation in his field, and to encourage a holistic understanding of the conductor’s role. “Conducting requires such a wide range of aptitudes and studies,” he told the BBC last year. “You are at once a composer, an instrumentalist, an orchestrator, a psychologist, a therapist.”
In a short video created to announce the program, he elaborates on this point. “Really at the center of this is being the team leader who values what everyone has to bring to the table,” Nézet-Séguin explains. “There’s a way also to empower everyone around to feel like they contribute to the sound, and to the long-term artistic vision of the institution.”
He adds: “I’m hoping that for these young, gifted conductors, this is going to give them the tools to spread their wings even more, so that conductors can be really their own people.”
Applications are now open for the program’s inaugural cycle, which begins with an in-person conducting workshop next February. Eligible candidates should submit materials by Nov. 15, to mentorship@yannicknezetseguin.com.
