New Year's Concert 2026

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the New Year's Concert in 2026.(Bild: APA/TOBIAS STEINMAURER)

Riccardo Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert for the seventh time as a "celebration of the finest". His successor knows the orchestra well - and still celebrates a premiere with the worldwide classical hit at the turn of the year. 

Yannick Nézet-Séguin was announced as the future conductor of the New Year's Concert on Wednesday. Although the music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera will be a newcomer to the New Year's Concert at the Musikverein on January 1st, classical music fans already know him from another prominent event of the Vienna Philharmonic: the Summer Night Concert in Schönbrunn. 

The 49-year-old Nézet-Séguin comes from an intellectual household and is the son of two university lecturers. Born in Montreal, Canada, he received piano lessons at an early age and later studied this alongside composition and conducting at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, which is based there.

Nézet-Séguin then began his conducting career in 2000 as Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in his home city of Montreal - with a lifetime contract since 2019. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, a position he held until 2018.

The audience - and the orchestra - love Riccardo Muti, and his succession will be challenging.(Bild: APA/DIETER NAGL)

Breakthrough in Salzburg
However, the real international breakthrough came at the Salzburg Festival in 2008, when the then 33-year-old impressed audiences with his conducting of Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette". This became the initial spark for numerous guest conductorships with the world's most important orchestras - from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Vienna Philharmonic.

The conductors of the New Year's Concert

Clemens Krauss	1939
Clemens Krauss	1941-1945
Josef Krips	1946-1947
Clemens Krauss	1948-1954
Willi Boskovsky	1955-1979
Lorin Maazel	1980-1986
Herbert von Karajan	1987
Claudio Abbado	1988
Carlos Kleiber	1989
Zubin Mehta	1990
Claudio Abbado	1991
Carlos Kleiber	1992
Riccardo Muti	1993
Lorin Maazel	1994
Zubin Mehta	1995
Lorin Maazel	1996
Riccardo Muti	1997
Zubin Mehta	1998
Lorin Maazel	1999
Riccardo Muti	2000
Nikolaus Harnoncourt	2001
Seiji Ozawa	2002
Nikolaus Harnoncourt	2003
Riccardo Muti	2004
Lorin Maazel	2005
Mariss Jansons	2006
Zubin Mehta	2007
Georges Pretre	2008
Daniel Barenboim	2009
Georges Pretre	2010
Franz Welser-Möst	2011
Mariss Jansons	2012
Franz Welser-Möst	2013
Daniel Barenboim	2014
Zubin Mehta	2015
Mariss Jansons	2016
Gustavo Dudamel	2017
Riccardo Muti	2018
Christian Thielemann	2019
Andris Nelsons	2020
Riccardo Muti	2021
Daniel Barenboim	2022
Franz Welser-Möst	2023
Christian Thielemann	2024
Riccardo Muti	2025
Yannick Nézet-Séguin	2026 (designated)

Nézet-Séguin became music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the most traditional orchestras in the USA, in 2012, with his current contract running until 2030 - despite the fact that the busy classical music expert, who has appeared at the Vienna State Opera six times to date, has held one of the most prestigious positions in the opera business since 2018: Following the inglorious dismissal of James Levine, New York's Metropolitan Opera decided to hire Nézet-Séguin as music director - here too until at least 2030.

Prominent predecessors
Nézet-Séguin has big shoes to fill. This year's conductor, Riccardo Muti, is one of the favorites of the Philharmoniker and the audience. And: only one conductor has conducted the New Year's Concert more often: Lorin Maazel, eleven times. His Indian colleague Zubin Mehta has made five appearances (1990, 1995, 1998, 2007 and 2015).