Between rehearsals are extensive media interviews, a celebratory breakfast with orchestra members, and post-performance meet-and-greets with the audiences. Many conductors shrink from such extramusical activities. Not him: "I love making music with others, so I love to be surrounded by people."
Nézet-Séguin (pronounced Yah-NEEK Neh-ZAY Say-GUN) also understands how important such appearances are at this time.
"It's a very special moment . . . when an orchestra and community get a new chief conductor," he says of the job he'll assume in 2012. "I don't want to walk on eggshells or enter through the back door. It's good for the orchestra to make the most out of it."
That's particularly the case in the orchestra's current financially fragile state - of which he's well aware. "My responsibility . . . is to focus everybody's energy in the same direction," he said. "I'm not here to make a revolution. I'm here to keep a tradition, but also to widen the perspective."
The orchestra's search for a new music director began in earnest in 2006, when then-maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the orchestra announced they would part ways after the 2007-08 season.
With few deep relationships to fall back on, and amid spiraling financial difficulties - deficits, falling ticket sales, eroding endowment and donations - the orchestra looked for someone willing, able, and likely to boost its image. After only two dates, rising star Nézet-Séguin signed on, adding Philadelphia to his current posts with Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is principal guest conductor.
