'Yannick, when he was announced, it was very exciting in a way, because he's very dynamic, young, tremendous musician,' Tommasini says. His tenure begins two years earlier than projected, says The New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini. 'Also, collaborate with trade unions the firemen's union, policemen's union, hospital workers, school teachers.'Īcross the Lincoln Center Plaza at the Metropolitan Opera, the impact of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's new 43-year-old music director, is less immediately apparent.

'Let's bring people to the hall for a series of concerts that Jaap will conduct - one-hour concerts,' Borda says. 'And I think that's a new way of looking and having guests in the house.'īorda says they're also going to be inviting in everyday New Yorkers who might want a place to go after a hard day's work, and charging only $5 a ticket. 'We don't have one composer in residence, but we have a lot of composers in residence, in fact, because they come here and they create their own evening,' Dutch-born van Zweden says. To take a different point of view.'īorda and van Zweden hope to bring in new audiences with a different approach to programming: that means thematic concerts such as ' Music of Conscience' and ' New York Stories: Threads of Our City.' There will also be a lot of new music. 'So that means it's a moment of great import, because no matter who the past music director was or who the next music director will be, it's a moment to think anew. 'Jaap is the 26th music director in our 177-year history,' Borda says. And she's joined by a new music director, Jaap van Zweden. New York Philharmonic president and CEO Deborah Borda has returned to the organization, where she held the same position in the 1990s.

Both organizations are grappling with 21st century issues of bringing new audiences in and convincing them that centuries-old music forms are central to their lives today. Two of the country's oldest and most venerated music institutions, the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, are beginning their seasons with a change in artistic leadership. New York Philharmonic music director Jaap van Zweden performs at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center on Sept.

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