Yannick Nézet-Séguin to Lead Vienna Philharmonic 2026 New Year’s Concert

The Canadian condcutor will lead the New Year’s Concert for the first time next year

The Vienna Philharmonic has announced that Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct its New Year’s Concert for the first time on January 1, 2026. 

Held annually since 1941, the event is now broadcast in over 90 countries worldwide. This year’s edition was conducted by Riccardo Muti at Vienna’s Musikverein. 

Nézet-Séguin’s artistic relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic began in 2010 at Salzburg’s Mozart Week. He has since regularly conducted the orchestra across Vienna and Salzburg, and on tour. Notably, he led the ensemble’s Summer Night Concert in 2023. 

Additionally, he is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Orchestre Métropolitain, Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, and Music and Artistic Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which has extended his contract to 2030.

“The Vienna Philharmonic has enjoyed a close and fruitful artistic partnership with Yannick Nézet-Séguin since 2010,” said Vienna Philharmonic’s chairman, Daniel Froschauer in the press release. 

“As music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as principal conductor of prominent international ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, he exemplifies the genres that together make up the musical language of the Vienna Philharmonic,” Froschauer added. “In choosing Yannick Nézet-Séguin we seek to fulfil our goal of working more with the younger generation of conductors.”

Ticket registrations for the 2026 New Year’s Concert will open on February 1, 2025.