Philadelphia Orchestra maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin asks Biden and Harris to add cabinet-level arts position

Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin is urging the incoming presidential administration to take immediate action to help save a U.S. arts sector battered by the pandemic.

“Artists need financial support to continue to create; the arts institutions of America need it to survive,” writes the conductor in a letter to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. “While the vaccine is now here, and we can finally start to see the end of the pandemic, the financial implications will last for years without meaningful government intervention.”

He urges them to consider appointing a cabinet-level champion dedicated to arts and culture — an idea proposed by others that has gathered steam. “In order to progress, to elevate the arts, we need a voice at the table that will be heard,” he writes.

The letter was posted Tuesday on social media, and will be sent directly to Biden and Harris, an orchestra spokesperson said.

Nézet-Séguin congratulates Biden and Harris on their election, and says that although he is a Canadian citizen, as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera, “two of the country’s greatest cultural institutions, I am a proud artistic citizen of the United States of America.”

He writes their election could not come at a more opportune time, saying that “like many industries, the arts and culture sector of the United States has suffered greatly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and vital government support for the arts has been late and insufficient to date.” He notes the long shutdown of concert halls, opera houses, theaters, museums, and artistic spaces.

“We have lost so many colleagues that make up the diverse fabric of the American artistic voice. We have lost the driving force in our lives: making music, theater, creating art for live audiences.”

“Now, as you take office,” Nézet-Séguin writes, “we finally feel a sense of HOPE. During the last four years, the arts were effectively dismissed, the NEA and NEH were deemed ‘wasteful,’ and the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities (PCAH) was disbanded. Mr. President, it’s clear you understand the value of the arts. As you said, ‘The future, who we are, lies in the arts. It’s the expression of our soul.’ And Madam Vice President, your statement that ‘the arts give people an outlet to view the world differently’ could not be more accurate. For these reasons, I urge your administration to prioritize the arts for the benefit of this country, for all Americans.”