Video: Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Met Orchestra Members Surprise Park-Goers With Concert at Little Island

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Grammy Award-winning conductor and Metropolitan Opera Music Director, led a surprise concert on Little Island on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Joining Nézet-Séguin at this urban oasis on the Hudson River were a quartet of Met Orchestra horn players – Erik Ralske, Roy Femenella, Javier Gándara and Barbara Jöstlein Currie.  

Watch the performance here!

Set against the backdrop of the New York City skyline, the charismatic Nézet-Séguin and his Met Orchestra colleagues “popped up” on Little Island to perform music ranging from classical masterpieces to contemporary compositions. The repertoire arranged by Dov Scheindlin, including “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini's Turandot, “Soave sia il vento” from Mozart's Così fan tutte, Strauss' Radetzky March, Bizet's Carmen Suite, and Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, was selected to showcase the timelessness and relevancy of classical music today. 

This concert was one of many examples of the Met's presence in New York City outside of the opera house this summer, including the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall concerts on June 15 and 22; the free 2023 Summer Recital Series, which kicked off June 20 at Central Park SummerStage and will continue in all boroughs; and the 14th annual Summer HD Festival in Lincoln Center Plaza starting August 25. Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra will depart on Saturday, June 24, for a 10-day European tour. 

"New York City in the summer is a creative playground, with public spaces welcoming New Yorkers and tourists alike to new experiences,” Nézet-Séguin said. “I selected Little Island because it is a unique public park committed to diverse artistic expressions, a commitment I share very deeply. Together with the Met, it was an absolute joy and honor to share our music in this way, and to witness the passion and enthusiasm of the audience. And I look forward to sharing more music with New York audiences and beyond.”  

For more information about Yannick Nézet-Séguin and upcoming Met performances, including the Met Orchestra's upcoming Europe tour, please visit metopera.org.  

The surprise concert at Little Island was made possible by the collaboration and support of the Metropolitan Opera and the musicians of the Met Opera Orchestra, who share a vision of bringing world-class artistry to the public in unexpected and accessible settings. 

About Yannick Nézet-Séguin 

In his fourth season as the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Canadian-born Yannick Nézet-Séguin has increasingly focused on supporting the creation of new works. He has served as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 and artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal since 2000. In 2018, he became honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was music director for ten seasons, and in 2016, he was named an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Between 2008 and 2014, he was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This season at the Met, he conducted Terence Blanchard's Champion and gave the premiere of Kevin Puts's The Hours. He also led For Ukraine: A Concert of Remembrance and Hope at the Met. Since his 2009 Met debut leading Bizet's Carmen, he has conducted nearly 150 performances of 17 operas at the house, including Verdi's Don Carlos and La Traviata, Puccini's Tosca and Turandot, Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice, Berg's Wozzeck, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Strauss's Elektra, and Wagner's Parsifal and Der Fliegende Holländer. Maestro Nézet-Séguin also enjoys close collaborations with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics and Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and the BBC Proms, as well as the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Grafenegg, Lanaudière, Vail, and Saratoga. Other operatic appearances have included performances at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Dutch National Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. In 2011, he began a cycle of seven Mozart operas for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, which Deutsche Grammophon recorded live. 

About Metropolitan Opera Orchestra 

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is regarded as one of the world's finest orchestras. From the time of the company's inception in 1883, the ensemble has worked with leading conductors in both opera and concert performances, and has acquired enormous technical polish, style, and versatility. The Met Orchestra maintains a demanding schedule of performances and rehearsals during its 33-week New York season, when the company performs as many as seven times a week in repertory that this season encompassed 23 operas.  In addition to its opera schedule, the orchestra has a distinguished history of concert performances. Arturo Toscanini made his American debut as a symphonic conductor with the Met Orchestra in 1913, and the impressive list of instrumental soloists who appeared with the orchestra includes Leopold Godowsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals, Josef Hofmann, Ferruccio Busoni, Jascha Heifetz, Moriz Rosenthal, and Fritz Kreisler. In recent years, instrumental and vocal soloists have included Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, Alfred Brendel, Maurizio Pollini, Evgeny Kissin, Christian Tetzlaff, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Natalie Dessay, Diana Damrau, Christine Goerke, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, and Peter Mattei. The group has also performed six world premieres: Milton Babbitt's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998), William Bolcom's Symphony No. 7 (2002), Hsueh-Yung Shen's Legend (2002), Charles Wuorinen's Theologoumenon (2007) and Time Regained (2009), and John Harbison's Closer to My Own Life (2011).   

About Little Island 

Little Island is a visionary public park located in Manhattan that provides a vibrant and inclusive space for people to engage with the arts, nature, and one another. Created to ignite curiosity, foster creativity, and celebrate the diversity of artistic expressions, Little Island is a testament to the power of community and the transformative nature of the arts. 

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