Yoel Gamzou

Israeli-American conductor Yoel Gamzou opened the 2024/25 season with a new production of Der Freischütz at the Hamburg State Opera, followed by debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Essen Philharmonic, and the Sinfonieorchester Bern. In April 2025, he returns to the Vienna State Opera with Salome, before concluding the season with the world premiere of Elmar Lampson’s opera Wellen at Theater Bremen. He will spend the summer on tour with the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic. In addition to his work as a conductor, Gamzou is also active as a composer—his most recent work was premiered with the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg under his own baton.

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 of Emerging Artist (Conductor) in 2017; the prestigious Princess Margriet Award in 2013; and the Berenberg Culture Prize (Hamburg) in 2012. 

Gamzou was born into 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. 

As of March 2025

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