Carnegie Hall

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world’s finest orchestras. Since the Met’s inception in 1883, it has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances, and has developed into an orchestra of enormous technical polish and style. The musicians maintain a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during the 32-week Lincoln Center season, with as many as seven performances per week in repertory that this season encompasses 18 operas. In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert performances, including an annual series at Carnegie Hall.

The history of the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble goes back to 1998, when then–Music Director James Levine organized the group’s first performance at Carnegie Hall in an effort to showcase the artistry and virtuosity of the orchestra members, and to create an opportunity for the musicians to perform more intimate repertoire. The chamber ensemble gave performances until 2016, when the concerts were discontinued.

In 2021, the group returned in a new initiative of the Met, with an artistic committee of orchestra members planning its repertoire in collaboration with Met administration and music staff. All orchestra members have the opportunity to participate in the series, and the programs often feature guest singers from the Met’s roster. This season, the chamber ensemble presents six performances in Weill Recital Hall.

Visit metorchestramusicians.org to read bios for individual orchestra members.

Canadian-born conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin became the Metropolitan Opera’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director with the beginning of the 2018–2019 season. He made his company debut in 2009 with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen and has since returned every season, leading more than 200 performances of 25 operas, as well as numerous galas and concerts with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Europe and Asia. He also serves as artistic director of the company’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the 2024–2025 season, he returns to the podium to conduct the Met premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, new productions of Verdi’s Aida and Strauss’s Salome, revivals of Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, and concerts with the Met Orchestra and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. In August 2024, the Met and Mr. Nézet-Séguin announced the extension of his tenure as music director through the 2029–2030 season.

He has been music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 and held the same position with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra—where he now serves as honorary conductor—between 2008 and 2018. Since 2000, he has served as artistic director and principal conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain. From 2008 to 2014, he was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and during the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 seasons, he was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist.

He enjoys close collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and has led performances at La Scala, Covent Garden, Dutch National Opera, Vienna State Opera, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Lanaudière, Vail, and Saratoga. His extensive recording catalog includes Kevin Puts’s The Hours, Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up in My Bones, A Concert for Ukraine, Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11, and Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice with the Met; his first solo piano album, Introspection: Solo Piano Sessions; Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, with soprano Renée Fleming; and numerous albums with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has received four Grammy Awards (of 13 nominations), winning most recently for conducting the Met’s recording of Champion.