Just in: Yannick’s local orchestra plans first tour

The first orchestra to appoint Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its artistic director, his home town ensemble, is going on a 7-city Europe tour with him in a year’s time.

The tour is intended as a showcase for the burgeoning cultural life of Quebec.

Local reports are crediting the conductor with its transformation.

Press release, just landed:

Montreal, November 24, 2016 — The Orchestre Métropolitain is pleased to announce an international tour—the first in its history—with its artistic director and principal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Specifically, the Orchestre will perform seven concerts in six European cities (Dortmund, Cologne and Hamburg in Germany, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Paris in France) between November 23 and December 4, 2017. Two renowned Quebec soloists will join the Orchestre, namely contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux and cellist Stéphane Tétreault, as will two other artists frequently seen and heard in Quebec, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist Alexandre Tharaud. Two programs are to be performed during the tour. Besides showcasing the Orchestre’s talent, the programs will each include a work by a Quebec composer and, in a nod to our roots, works by French and English composers.

The Orchestre Métropolitain’s artistic director and principal conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is delighted with how this major project has come together. “Tours are part of my life,” he says. “This time, it gives me great pride to tour with my Orchestre Métropolitain, which is so close to my heart. To present this ensemble to European audiences, who know it through its recordings but have not yet had the opportunity to hear it in concert, is especially exciting for me, who has performed in all these cities and all these famous venues with my other orchestras. This tour with the Métropolitan’s musicians is an important step on our shared musical path. I am filled with immense joy at the prospect of touring with my friends in the Métropolitain, and I am all the more proud to share these moments with exceptional artists such as Alexandre Tharaud, Jean-Guihen Queyras and, of course, Stéphane Tétreault and Marie-Nicole Lemieux, great musicians who are celebrated around the globe.”