Your Dogs and Cats Can Now Listen to Yannick’s Epic Playlist for Pets
34 hours of classical music, curated by the maestro especially for your furry friends.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and an adoptable cat at the PSPCA. (Photo courtesy the Philadelphia Orchestra)
Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin loves cats. He and his partner Pierre have three of their own (their names: Rodolfo, Melisande, and Rafa) inside their posh pad overlooking Rittenhouse Square. And now Yannick has created a classical music playlist for your pets.
The 34-hour playlist consists of 326 songs, and you can download it on Apple Music or Spotify.
And not only do you get an incredible soundtrack for your pet’s pampered life. You also get Yannick’s notes for each song about why he chose to include it. It’s like going to Vetri and having Marc Vetri himself come out and talk to you about the food on your plate.
For instance, there’s Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“Our cats each have their own favorite moment,” Yannick explains of that symphony. “Rodolfo indulges in the first movement, Melisande purrs during the Adagietto, and Rafa revels in the Finale!”
Yannick at home with his three cats — and a very nice piano in the background. (Instagram)
(If you’re looking at your cat right now thinking, Wow, all you do is stick dead mice on my bed, you’re not alone.)
And if your cat is super hyper and needs to let loose, Yannick has the answer: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring as well as some Bach.
“When our cats need to burn some energy — sprints, marathons, mouse-toy hunting — this is the perfect soundtrack,” he notes.
Yannick Nezet-Seguin with an adoptable cat at the PSPCA. (Instagram)
“I couldn’t resist the opportunity to blend my love of music with my love of animals,” said Yannick in a statement. “Seeing the way my own cats react to the music we play at home, and learning from the PSPCA the benefits of music in shelters, I wanted to do my part to make the experience for the loving animals at the shelter a little bit better while they wait for their forever homes.”
The playlist is now on constant rotation at the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) in North Philadelphia.
“A shelter is a very unnatural place for these animals to be residing for any length of time,” says Kayla Dorney, PSPCA behavior and enrichment coordinator. “Anything we can do to create a calmer space for them, putting them in a better state of mind, will help shorten their stay and ultimately find them their forever families.”
