Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Like many 10-year-olds, Yannick Nézet-Séguin dreamt of becoming a professional musician. But unlike most, 21 years later, the Canadian finds himself living out this fantasy as one of the world's most celebrated young conductors.

'It was a little boy's dream to go all over the world,' Nézet-Séguin reflects. 'Conducting great musicians, making new friends and having adventures.

'When I was 10 I did not realise that it took so much time to become a conductor,' the Montreal-born and based conductor and pianist admits. But he persisted, and is happy with his present position as artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, where he has been working since 2000.

At 31, Nézet-Séguin has already conducted many of the world's top orchestras. In March he debuted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has performed in several other European cities. In April he will conduct the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in St Andrews, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

'I actually wanted to enter the school in orchestral conducting but they laughed.

His professional training began at the Conservatoire de Musique et d'Art Dramatique du Québec in Montreal: 'I actually wanted to enter the school in orchestral conducting but they laughed. They said, "Do you have an instrument?" And I told them piano. They said "Well, you should do this."'

He later studied composition, chamber music and conducting at the conservatoire and choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1995, aged 20, he founded a vocal and instrumental ensemble, La Chapelle de Montréal.

Five years later came his appointment at his hometown's Orchestre Métropolitain. 'I didn't plan to have the responsibility for an important group in my country at that age,' he says honestly. But it is in this position, as artistic director and principal conductor, that Nézet-Séguin has flourished and entered into the international limelight.

The Métropolitain performs concerts throughout Montreal, taking the likes of Mahler and Bruckner to neighbourhoods they have never visited before. 'We go to people who have not heard of these composers and introduce it to them. We want to achieve this with top quality as well - never compromising on the quality because we are doing more community work.'

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