Music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin is set to put his signature on Philadelphia Orchestra

PHILLY'S MUSICAL future arrives this weekend, as the diminutive, intense and charismatic Yannick Nezet-Seguin (Yah-NEEK Neh-ZAY Say-GAN) leaps onto the podium. He'll lead three concerts, his first since being named the Philadelphia Orchestra's music director-designate in June.

After the elegant formality of Haydn's "Military" (Symphony No. 100) and Mahler's huge, rambling Fifth Symphony, his three concerts will undoubtedly end in an eruption of welcome. He'll return the favor by greeting audience members after each concert in the Kimmel Center plaza.

Only the eighth music director in the orchestra's 110-year history, and the first from North America, YNS (as he is called in his native Montreal) is a 35-year-old, 5-foot-5 dynamo. He guest-conducted only one program in each of the past two seasons, but that was enough for the musicians and management to realize a personification of the future. Personable, gifted and full of youthful energy, he impressed the musicians with his collaborative attitude and obvious natural talent. Many players insist they can tell in eight bars whether a new conductor has "it" or not, and Nezet-Seguin obviously had it.

He's arriving to lead an orchestra that, under the recent guidance of chief conductor Charles Dutoit, has developed the astonishing ability to adapt to the unique styles of guest conductors. The musicians perform at a supreme level with an immense pride, ready for this new leader.

Nezet-Seguin's name derives from his father, Serge Seguin, and the later adaptation of his mother's name, Claudine Nezet. At age 10, he was so impressed by hearing our Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony that he immediately realized his destiny was to be a conductor. During summers, he studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J.

Dutoit happened to attend the Montreal Opera's "Barber of Seville," in which Nezet-Seguin was making his debut as the chorus conductor, and was impressed enough to offer him a two-week guest-conducting opportunity with the Montreal Symphony. Nezet-Seguin considers as his mentors Dutoit and the great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, who allowed the young man to assist him for a year of European touring.

This season, he'll lead only this week and another in January, performing the Mozart Requiem in January. He conducts five weeks next season and will officially become music director in the 2012-13 season.