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)Season 2026/2027
TEATR WIELKI – POLISH NATIONAL OPERA
Ballet Gala
Sep 12/13
Mahler – Symphony No. 2
Sep 26
BBC Philharmonic
Bernstein – Candide Overture
Korngold – Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6
Oct 10
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TEATR 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, with passionate intensity and a unique artistic vision, expands the boundaries of traditional music performance. His deeply personal interpretations, his tireless interest in new music, and his uncompromising commitment to bringing it to new audiences make him one of the most remarkable representatives of a new generation of conductors. He will assume his post as Music Director of the Teatr Wielki – the Polish National Opera – at the start of the 2026/27 season.
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His first season at the Teatr Wielki – the Polish National Opera – includes Salome, Káťa Kabanová, and Tosca, concerts, and two projects with the Polish National Ballet: Don Quixote and Krzysztof Pastor's Prometheus to music by Philip Glass, and Mozart's Requiem in D minor . Further engagements in the 2026/27 season include a return to the BBC Philharmonic at Bridgewater Hall and debuts with the orchestra of the Volksoper Vienna and with the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as his concert debut with the Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie.
As a sought-after concert conductor, Yoel Gamzou has already worked with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Frankfurt Museumsorchester He has performed with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, 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 directly to return 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 been in the Opernwelt He is well-established. In 2022, he conducted Die tote Stadt at the Vienna State Opera, which led to regular 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, polarizing new production of Der Freischütz and a later return to this production at the Hamburg State Opera, as well as his debut with Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at the Opéra National de Montpellier. He is a regular guest conductor at the Hamburg State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera.
From 2017 to 2022, Yoel Gamzou was General Music Director at the Theater Bremen, where his productions included Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , Die tote Stadt , Der Rosenkavalier , Jenůfa and Pique Dame , as well as the world premiere of Elmar Lampson's opera Wellen .
Gamzou is a dedicated partner for unconventional projects. From 2017, he was part of the creative team around Marina Abramović that developed the critically acclaimed project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas . Following its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera, the work was performed throughout Europe, including at the English National Opera, the Opéra de Paris, the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Teatro di San Carlo, and the Royal Theatre Carré Amsterdam.
Yoel Gamzou is also a prolific composer. His most recent work, The Portrait – Archaeology of an Obsession for narrator and orchestra, is based on poems by the British painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Portrait premiered in January 2025 at the Konzerthaus Berlin with Sir Tim Rice as narrator and was an immediate success. It was subsequently published by Schott Music.
Also released by Schott Music was his completion of Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony. Titled *Realisation and Elaboration of the Unfinished Drafts*, the work follows a highly personal and controversial approach. Its premiere caused a sensation and catapulted Gamzou into the international spotlight with his first performance in 2010—at which time he was only 23 years old. It was subsequently released as a CD recording by the German label WERGO and received the ECHO Klassik award in 2017. Since then, it has been performed worldwide by Gamzou and numerous other conductors.
Alongside his work in the established concert and opera world, Gamzou has always maintained close ties with youth orchestras and founded several of his own ensembles. In 2006, he co-founded the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO) with musicians from over 25 countries, serving as its artistic director for ten years and exploring a non-hierarchical approach to orchestral work. In 2023, he founded the oneMusic Orchestra, dedicated to commissioning "new music that people actually want to hear." The project maintains a 50/50 balance between early and contemporary music in each of its programs and specifically seeks out composers from diverse musical genres who are not typically represented in traditional concert halls.
Yoel Gamzou was awarded the ECHO Klassik 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 at 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 most important mentor.
2026/27
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