A Dream Fulfilled

On January 1, NCB members Jennifer Nelson (flute) and Bruce Nelson (euphonium) fulfilled their dream of attending the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Year’s Concert in Vienna, Austria.

For many years, the Vienna Philharmonic has upheld a New Year’s tradition of presenting a program featuring the spirited yet nostalgic music drawn from the extensive repertoire of the Johann Strauss family and their contemporaries. These concerts captivate not only audiences at Vienna’s Musikverein, but also a vast international public, reaching around 50 million viewers in over 150 countries through worldwide television and streaming broadcasts. View this year’s program here.

In October 1979, when the conductor was forced to withdraw from the New Year’s Concert of 1980 for health reasons, the Philharmonic introduced a fundamental change. The orchestra appointed an internationally renowned conductor, who led the concerts until 1986. Thereafter, the musicians decided to engage a different conductor each year, including Riccardo Muti in the years 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2018, and 2021. Muti was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s distinguished tenth music director from 2010 until 2023, and was named Music Director Emeritus for Life beginning with the 2023/24 Season. This year, for the first time, Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the famous program.

In this short interview, Nézet-Séguin talks about this year’s concert.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Vienna Philharmonic at the 2026 New Year’s Concert.

Tickets for this concert are allocated by lottery. Interested concertgoers apply at the beginning of each year and are notified in March.