Yoel Gamzou
BBC Philharmonic - Mahler 9th Symphony
An interpreter of extraordinary vision and intensity, Gamzou delivered Mahler's Ninth with burning clarity and emotional power, navigating the symphony's deep structure with poetic finesse.
The Arts Desk (May 14, 2025)
OperaWire.com (July 26, 2025)Upcoming
BBC Philharmonic
Bernstein – Candide Overture
Korngold – Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6
Oct 10
TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Strauss – Salome
Nov 22/26/28, Dec 8/11/13
New Year's Eve concert
Dec 31
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TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Ballet Gala
Sep 12/13Mahler – Symphony No. 2
Sep 26BBC Philharmonic
Bernstein – Candide Overture
Korngold – Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6
Oct 10TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Strauss – Salome
Nov 22/26/28, Dec 8/11/13New Year's Eve concert
Dec 31Puccini – Tosca
Jan 2/3/8/10/16Janáček – Katja Kabanova
Jan 17/20/24/27/30Strauss – Don Quixote
Feb 4/5/6/7/13Orchestra of the Vienna VOLKSOPER /Vienna Concert Hall
Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Rautavaara – Incantations, Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra with Christoph Sietzen
Prokofiev – Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet Suites Nos. 1-3, Opp. 64a, 64b & 101
Feb 23TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Verdi Requiem
March 26Beethoven – The Creatures of Prometheus
Apr 8/9/10/11/17/22OPÉRA ORCHESTRA NATIONAL MONTPELLIER
Elgar – Cockaigne Overture
Waley-Cohen – Mother Tongue
Walton – Symphony No. 1
Apr 30TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Szymanowski - Nocturne and Tarantella
Golijov - Azul cello concerto
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 in B minor ' Pathétique'
May 8DANISH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Britten – Violin Concerto with Baiba Skride
Walton – Symphony No. 1
May 21TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Walton – Belshazzar's Feast
June 11
Biography
Yoel Gamzou is an Israeli-American conductor and composer who expands the boundaries of traditional music performance with passionate intensity and a unique artistic vision. His deeply personal interpretations, relentless interest in new music and uncompromising commitment to communicating with new audiences make him one of the most remarkable representatives of a new generation of conductors. With the 2026/27 season, he begins his tenure as Music Director of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera.
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At the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Gamzou’s first season includes Salome, Káťa Kabanová and Tosca, concerts, and two projects with the Polish National Ballet: Don Quixotee and Krzysztof Pastor’s Prometheus, set to music by Philip Glass and Mozart’s Requiem in D minor. Further engagements in 2026/27 include a return to the BBC Philharmonic at Bridgewater Hall, debuts with the Orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper and the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, and his concert debut with the Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie.
As a highly sought-after symphonic conductor, Yoel Gamzou has worked with renowned orchestras such as the Wiener Symphoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Symphoniker Hamburg, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, the Essener Philharmoniker, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Museumsorchester, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. His last-minute debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic led to immediate re-invitations. His work with the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic included a tour culminating in a concert at the Salzburg Festival.
Gamzou has also established himself in the world of opera. In 2022, he conducted Die tote Stadt at the Vienna State Opera, leading to frequent appearances there and at other major European opera houses. His operatic engagements include Salome at the Vienna State Opera and the Baltic Opera Festival, Fidelio at the Bavarian State Opera and the Munich Opera Festival, a radical, polarising new production of Der Freischütz and a subsequent return to the production at the Hamburg State Opera, and his debut at the Opéra National de Montpellier with Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. He works regularly as a guest conductor at the Hamburg State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera.
From 2017 to 2022, Yoel Gamzou was General Music Director at Theater Bremen, where his productions included Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Die tote Stadt, Der Rosenkavalier, Jenůfa, Pique Dame and many others, including the world premiere of Elmar Lampson’s opera Wellen.
Gamzou has been an avid partner for unconventional projects. From 2017 onwards, he was part of the creative team around Marina Abramović that developed the critically acclaimed project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, which went on to premiere at the Bavarian State Opera and tour all over Europe, among others to the English National Opera, the Opéra de Paris, the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Teatro di San Carlo and Royal Theatre Carré Amsterdam.
Yoel Gamzou is also a prolific composer. His most recent work, The Portrait – Archaeology of an Obsession for speaker and orchestra, is based on poems by the British painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Portrait was premiered in January 2025 at the Konzerthaus Berlin with Sir Tim Rice as speaker and was an immediate success. It was subsequently published by Schott Music.
Also published by Schott Music is his completion of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony. Titled Realisation and Elaboration of the Unfinished Drafts, the work followed a highly personal and controversial approach. It was a sensation at the time of its premiere and catapulted him into the international spotlight when it was first performed in 2010—at that point Gamzou was only 23. It was subsequently released as a CD recording by the German label WERGO and won the ECHO Klassik Award in 2017. It has since been performed all over the world by Gamzou and many other conductors.
Alongside his work in the mainstream symphonic and opera world, Gamzou has always nourished relationships with youth orchestras and has founded several ensembles of his own. In 2006, he founded the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO)—of which he was the artistic director for ten years—with musicians from over 25 countries, exploring a non-hierarchical approach to orchestral work. In 2023, he founded a new group, the oneMusic Orchestra, dedicated to the commissioning of “new music one actually wants to hear.” The project is committed to a 50/50 approach between old and new music in each of its programmes and is dedicated to finding composers from different musical realms otherwise not represented in classical concert halls.
Yoel Gamzou was honoured with the ECHO Klassik Award in 2017, the Princess Margriet Award of the European Cultural Foundation in 2013 and the Berenberg Culture Prize in 2012. In 2007, at the age of 19, he won the special prize of the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg.
Yoel Gamzou grew up in New York, London and Tel Aviv. He was the last student of Carlo Maria Giulini, who was his main mentor.
2026/27
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