“In the orchestra world, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is the conductor everyone wants. He’s young (just turned 40) and cool, at home both on Twitter and in a Tchaikovsky score,” writes Anne Midgette in Thursday’s (4/2) Washington Post. “Nézet-Séguin currently holds two other music director posts: with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, where he will step down at the end of 2017, and with the Orchestre Metropolitain in Montreal, a post he plans to retain. Apart from that, he is … limiting his guest appearances.… ‘What can I say? I’m a faithful guy,’ Nézet-Séguin joked…. Allison Vulgamore, the [Philadelphia] orchestra’s president and chief executive, cites ‘a spirit of joyful interaction that audiences cotton onto.’ … Vulgamore discusses what she calls ‘a happy palette of opportunity’—outreach programs, a new app that delivers program notes in real time…, a regular working relationship with China that is, through sponsorships, ‘accretive to the orchestra.’ … But the orchestra, though it emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2012, still needs to build up its endowment and find ways to continue attracting audiences. Even Nézet-Séguin’s arrival and subsequent popularity haven’t brought about the rise in ticket sales one might expect … [and] the musicians’ contract is up for renewal in September.”
Posted April 7, 2015
