The Israeli-American conductor Yoel Gamzou has distinguished himself as a radical, versatile conductor with a strong affinity for the symphonic repertoire of the early 20th century and is known for his interpretations of the works of Gustav Mahler. In 2023 he founded the oneMusic Orchestra.
On the concert stage, Gamzou has conducted the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Norwegian Radio and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, the Israeli and Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg and Hamburg Symphony Orchestras, the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra and the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, among others.
As an opera conductor, he appears regularly at the Hamburg State Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. At the latter, he made his debut with a special premiere: alongside performance art icon Marina Abramovic, he was part of the creative team for the world premiere of »7 Deaths of Maria Callas«, which he conducted in September 2020. The production subsequently went to the Opéra National de Paris, the Teatro San Carlo Naples, the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Carre Amsterdam and will be seen at the English National Opera in London in autumn 2023.
In 2022 he stepped in at the Vienna State Opera with 8 hours notice to conduct Erich Wolfgang Korngold's »Die tote Stadt«. The performance was followed by immediate re-invitations for a number of productions, including the legendary »Fledermaus« directed by Otto Schenk or »Tosca«.
In 2022 Gamzou conducted an acclaimed new production of »Carmen« at the Staatsoper Hamburg, which has led to a fruitful and intense relationship with the house. Future projects include Giacomo Puccini's »Tosca« and »The Dead City«. He also has a diverse collaboration with the Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Gothenburg Opera.
From 2017 to 2022, Gamzou was General Music Director of the Theater Bremen, where he led several critically and audience acclaimed new productions ranging from Shostakovich's »Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk«, to Janáček's »Jenůfa«, to his own arrangement of John Lennon's »Imagine« album for symphony orchestra, choir and rock band. He regularly returns to Bremen as a guest conductor.
Gustav Mahler's music has a particular influence on Yoel Gamzou's career: he gained worldwide recognition at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition when he was awarded the competition's special prize at the age of 19. In 2010, his acclaimed completion of Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony was premiered and published by Schott Music. Gamzou conducted the International Mahler Orchestra, which he founded in 2006, at both the premiere in Berlin and the subsequent concert tour in 2011. A live recording of the final concert of the tour in the Berlin Philharmonie was released on the WERGO label. Gamzou's version of Mahler's 10th Symphony continues to be performed around the world, often under the direction of Gamzou himself.
Following the success of the International Mahler Orchestra, Gamzou has now founded oneMusic, a pioneering orchestra dedicated to the composition and performance of new, genre-bending music, with at least 50% world premieres in its programme. Together with the orchestra, Gamzou is a Fellowship artist at Beethovenfest Bonn 2023.
Gamzou was born into a family of artists and grew up in New York, London and Tel Aviv. He trained with the Israeli-American conductor Winston Dan Vogel and was the last student of Carlo Maria Giulini, with whom he worked for two years until the latter's death in Milan.