Yoel Gamzou

The 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 Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra. He concludes the season with the world premiere of Elmar Lampson's opera Wellen at Theater Bremen. He spends 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 - he recently conducted his latest work with the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg. In 2023, he founded the oneMusic Orchestra, which made its successful debut at the Beethovenfest in Bonn. From 2012-2015 he was 1st Kapellmeister and Deputy GMD at the Staatstheater Kassel, 2017-2022 GMD of the Theater Bremen, he is also Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO), which he founded in 2006. 

He has also repeatedly conducted at the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Paris Opéra, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the ENO and the Aalto Theater in Essen, among others. As a concert conductor, Yoel Gamzou has appeared with renowned orchestras such as the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the DSO Berlin, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the German Radio Philharmonic, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra and the Hamburg, Stuttgart and St. Gallen Philharmonic Orchestras. 

Gamzou has received numerous awards, including the ECHO Klassik Award in the Young Artist (Conducting) category in 2017, the Princess Margriet Award in 2013 and the Berenberg Culture Prize (Hamburg). Born into a family of artists and raised in New York, London and Tel Aviv, he was the last pupil of Carlo Maria Giulini.