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 33-week Lincoln Center season, with as many as seven performances per week in repertory that this season encompasses 23 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 Carmen and has since returned every season, conducting nearly 150 performances of 17 operas, as well as numerous galas and concerts with the Met Orchestra. This season at the Met, he takes the podium to lead the company premieres of Kevin Puts’s The Hours and Terence Blanchard’s Champion, a new production of Lohengrin, a revival of La Bohème, For Ukraine: A Concert of Remembrance and Hope, and concerts with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and on tour throughout Europe.

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. He enjoys close collaborations with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and has also 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.

Recent recordings include his first solo piano album, Introspection: Solo Piano Sessions, as well as albums with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, winning most recently for conducting the Met’s recording of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones and collaborating with Renée Fleming on Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene.

A graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green has been a fixture on the company’s stage since his 2012 debut as the Mandarin in Turandot. He is currently starring as Young Emile Griffith in the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and has also appeared as Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Jake in Porgy and Bess, Colline in La Bohème, Uncle Paul in the Met premiere of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Varlaam in Boris Godunov, the King in Aida, Oroe in Semiramide, “Rambo” in the company premiere of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, the Jailer in Tosca, and the Second Knight in Parsifal. He is the only artist to twice win the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award, established by Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman, receiving the honor in 2021 and 2023.

Elsewhere this season, the Virginia native takes the stage with both the Met Orchestra and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble for concerts at Carnegie Hall and sings Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Chineke! Orchestra at the BBC Proms and with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Orest in Elektra at Washington National Opera, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Opéra de Paris, the world premiere of a piece by Courtney Bryan with the New York Philharmonic, and Varlaam at the Bavarian State Opera. He is also an artist-in-residence at Florida State University, where he leads master classes with vocal students and gives a solo recital.

In 2014, Mr. Green became a member of the ensemble at the Vienna State Opera, where he appeared in performances of Macbeth, The Magic Flute, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos, Das Rheingold, La Bohème, and Anna Bolena, among many others. He has also appeared at the Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, the Salzburg Festival, Houston Grand Opera, and Opera San Antonio. In 2016, Little, Brown and Company published Daniel Bergner’s Sing for Your Life, which tells the story of Mr. Green’s powerful personal and artistic journey.

Hailing from Philadelphia, bass-baritone Eric Owens has taken the stage for more than 100 performances of 13 roles at the Metropolitan Opera. He is currently appearing as Emile Griffith in the company premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion and has previously sung Philippe II in the company premiere of Don Carlos, Porgy in Porgy and Bess, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, Vodník in Rusalka, Jaufré Rudel in the company premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, Orest in Elektra, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Alberich in the Ring cycle, and General Leslie Groves in the company premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, which also marked his Met debut in 2008. He also recently appeared in the Met’s presentation of Verdi’s Requiem, which commemorated the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

During the 2022–2023 season, he also sings Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at LA Opera, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Opéra de Paris, Wotan in the Ring cycle at the Vienna State Opera, and concerts with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he has appeared as Porgy at Dutch National Opera, Wotan in Siegfried and Die Walküre at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Filippo II in Don Carlo and Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars at Washington National Opera, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Houston Grand Opera, Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust in concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the title role of Macbeth at the Glimmerglass Festival.

In 2017, he was appointed artistic advisor of the Glimmerglass Festival. He serves on the board of trustees of both the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and Astral Artistic Services, and in 2019, he became co-chair of the Curtis Institute’s opera department.