Yoel Gamzou

Israeli-American conductor Yoel Gamzou begins his 2024/25 season with a new production of Der Freischütz at the Hamburg State Opera. Later in the season he will make his debuts with the Essen Philharmonic and the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, and also return to the Vienna State Opera with Salome and to the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg to conduct Mahler’s 5th Symphony. To round out the 2024/25 season Gamzou will conduct the world premiere of Elmar Lampson’s new opera Wellen at the Theater Bremen.

In the autumn of 2023 Gamzou founded the oneMusic Orchestra, which gave its inaugural performance at the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Previously he served as Generalmusikdirektor of Theater Bremen from the 2017/18 to 2021/22 seasons. During his time in Bremen, Gamzou led numerous critically acclaimed new productions including Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Die Fledermaus, Die tote Stadt, L’Etoile, Der Rosenkavalier and Jenufa, as well as a revival of Carmen.

In recent seasons he has been seen at the Hamburg State Opera with Carmen, Tosca, and Die tote Stadt; at the Bavarian State Opera with Wolf-Ferrari's Il Segreto di Susanna and Lehár's Schön ist die Welt; at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Tosca; the Vienna State Opera with Tosca, Die Fledermaus and Die tote Stadt; at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden with Turandot, Carmen and The Merry Widow; at the Gothenburg Opera with Die schweigsame Frau; and at the Aalto Theater Essen with Der Freischütz. He also served as the conductor for Marina Abramovic’s the Seven Deaths of Maria Callas at the English National Opera, the Opéra de Paris, the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Teatro San Carlo and the Bavarian State Opera.

Recent guest engagements as a concert conductor have taken Gamzou to the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Sinfonieorchester Bern, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia, the Bremen Philharmonic,  the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Vienna Symphony and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Previously he has also conducted the Bamberg Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, Deutsches Radio-Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgarter Philharmonic, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen and the Israel Philharmonic among others.

Gamzou founded his own orchestra in 2006, the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO) of players from 25 countries. In 2010, Gamzou garnered further international recognition when his completion of Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony was premiered and published by Schott Music. From 2012 to 2015, he was First Kapellmeister and deputy-General Music Director of the Staatstheater Kassel.

Gamzou is the recipient of various prizes and awards, including: the ECHO Klassik Award in the category emerging artist of the year “conductor” in 2017; the prestigious “Princess Margriet Award” in 2013; and the Berenberg Culture Prize (Hamburg) in 2012. 

Gamzou was born to an artistic family and grew up in New York, London and Tel Aviv. He had the honor of being Carlo Maria Giulini’s final student.

2024/25

(This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by ARSIS Artist Management.)