Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Met Orchestra Return To Carnegie Hall For Two June Concerts

As Carnegie Hall’s 2022–2023 season draws to a close, The Met Orchestra returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage to perform two concerts under the baton of Music Director and Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, both showcasing internationally acclaimed vocalists who have been featured on The Metropolitan Opera stage.

On Thursday, June 15 at 8:00 p.m., soprano Nadine Sierra and baritone Quinn Kelsey join Maestro Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra, and The Met Chorus for Brahms’ grand Ein deutsches Requiem. The concert opens with the New York premiere of the choral work Oraison by Luis Ernesto Peña Laguna. Oraison was commissioned by the Orchestre Métropolitain in 2022 to be performed alongside Ein deutsches Requiem, serving together as a tribute to the victims of COVID-19 and those left behind. This concert marks The Met Chorus’ first appearance at Carnegie Hall in twenty years.

Maestro Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra return the following week on Thursday, June 22 at 8:00 p.m., performing Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story—62 years after the work’s 1961 world premiere at Carnegie Hall. The evening’s program continues with Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture from Romeo and Juliet; the final act of Verdi’s Otello featuring soprano Angel Blue as Desdemona and tenor Russell Thomas in the title role; and the world premiere of Heath (King Lear Sketches), a new piece by MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin whose opera Eurydice premiered to great acclaim at the Met Opera in 2021.

Following their June 22 Carnegie Hall appearance, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Met Orchestra will embark on their first international tour in more than 20 years with five concerts in Europe from June 27–July 2, including performances in Paris, London, and Baden-Baden.

About The Artists

Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the third music director in the history of New York’s Metropolitan Opera in August 2018. He is currently in his eleventh season as music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom he has recently renewed his contract and received an expanded title. Mr. Nézet-Séguin will serve as both music and artistic director through at least the 2029–30 season, consolidating his professional activity around two of the world’s preeminent artist organizations.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012, leading The Philadelphia Orchestra in his inaugural season as music director and has since made regular appearances at the Hall, including as a Perspectives artist in the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 seasons. He has been artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000 and in 2017, became the third-ever honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He is honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was chief conductor from 2008 to 2018, and enjoys close collaborations with leading orchestras as one of the most sought-after conductors in the world.

A native of Montreal, Mr. Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and continued his studies with renowned conductor Carlo Maria Giulini; he also studied choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt at Westminster Choir College. Among his honors are an appointment as Companion of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honors; Musical America’s 2016 Artist of the Year; and honorary doctorates from the Université du Québec, Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College, McGill University, University of Pennsylvania, and Laval University.

The Met Orchestra is regarded as one of the world’s finest orchestras today. From the time of the company’s inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances and has developed into an orchestra of enormous technical polish and style. The orchestra made its debut at Carnegie Hall in 1894 and has since performed at the Hall more than 90 times.

Looking ahead to next season, The Met Orchestra returns for three concerts conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The first program in February 2024 includes music by Webern, Wagner, and Mahler as a part of Carnegie Hall’s Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice festival: an exploration of the tumultuous Weimar Republic era through dozens of musical performances and multidisciplinary offerings. In June, The Met Orchestra, joined by soprano Lisette Oropesa, will perform two Mozart arias, as well as Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and a recent work by Jessie Montgomery. The final of the orchestra’s three concerts of 2024 will include a Wagner overture and Debussy’s Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande. Mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn will join the orchestra in a complete concert performance of Bartók’s one-act opera, Bluebeard’s Castle.

The Met Chorus is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. The Met Chorus is a ubiquitous presence throughout the Met’s New York season and can be seen and heard in the company’s high-definition transmissions into movie theaters (The Met: Live in HD series), as well as radio broadcasts, audio, and video recordings. Performances featuring The Met Chorus have garnered nine Grammy Award wins, including three consecutive awards since 2021. The Met Chorus is at home performing a wide variety of styles, languages, and eras: singing everything from ancient Egyptian in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten to English in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, as well as operas in German, Italian, Russian, Czech, French, Latin, and Spanish.

Under the direction of Maestro Donald Palumbo, The Met Chorus just completed one of the most ambitious seasons in its history, performing to critical and audience acclaim in all 23 operas in the Met season of 216 performances and working closely with Music Director Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin and a wide range of guest conductors and directors.

Also at home on the concert stage, The Met Chorus has recently been featured in For Ukraine: A Concert of Remembrance and Hope, A Concert for Ukraine, and Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11, recordings of the last two receiving Grammy Award nominations. In addition to these works, the group has performed Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. The Met Chorus made its first appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1996 singing Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust with The Met Orchestra and appeared in subsequent performances in 2001–03.