Philadelphia to meet Yannick Nézet-Séguin
"I am a Philadelphian now," Wolfgang Sawallisch told the city after being named music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1990s.
"I am a Philadelphian now," Wolfgang Sawallisch told the city after being named music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1990s.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Friday will say much the same thing, if with a Quebecois accent, when he comes to Philadelphia for the first time since being named music director-designate last weekend.
Nézet-Séguin, 35, doesn't take over until 2012, but the orchestra is capitalizing on the appointment now to help spur ticket sales and fund-raising. The Montrealer will spend Friday rubbing elbows with musicians, board members, donors, and potential listeners in a series of public and private events.
The general public is invited to chat with the conductor at noon at the Kimmel Center. At 1 p.m. he meets Mayor Nutter at City Hall. At 2 he visits with two local icons, Peter Nero and the Liberty Bell, joined by student violinists from Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School. Then, at 3, it's on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where a spokeswoman promises he will not be seized by an uncontrollable urge to run up some steps.
The conductor will sign his new contract in a private afternoon ceremony in the Academy of Music ballroom.
Friday evening, Nézet-Séguin will be in the audience at the orchestra's free neighborhood concert in Upper Darby. Then he'll solidify his credentials as a Philadelphian by taking in a Phillies game - where, one hopes, he'll have time to study the score to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" before the seventh-inning stretch, when he'll conduct not a finely honed orchestral ensemble, but a park full of boisterous fans.