Israeli-American conductor and composer. Since the 2026/27 season, the Polish National Opera’s Music Director. From 2017 to 2022, General Music Director at Theater Bremen. He was the last student of Carlo Maria Giulini.
Yoel Gamzou has been honored with the ECHO Klassik Award (2017), the Princess Margriet Award (2013), and the Berenberg Culture Prize (2012). In 2007, at the age of 19, he won the special prize of the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition, Bamberg.
In 2010, he achieved international acclaim for his own completion of Gustav Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony, which was published by the renowned publishing house Schott Music in Mainz. His version has since been celebrated by both press and audiences all over the world and has been performed over 50 times.
As guest conductor he has established regular collaborations with both symphony orchestras and major European opera houses.
He has a particularly close working relationship with the the BBC Philharmonic ever since his debut with Mahler's 9th Symphony. He also regularly conducts major orchestras such as the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Bern, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and the Essener Philharmoniker. He has conducted, among others, the Wiener Symphoniker, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, Deutsches Radio-Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgarter Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others.
Ever since the widely acclaimed production 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, which Gamzou co-created with artist Marina Abramovic, he has nourished a close relationship with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he has conducted several productions – most recently Die Tote Stadt and Fidelio. He also regularly conducts at Staatsoper Hamburg (Carmen, Tosca, Die tote Stadt, Der Freischütz) and has worked at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opera de Paris, Teatro di San Carlo Napoli, Gothenburg Opera, Hessisches Staatstheater, Opera de Montpelier, and many others.
Since 2022, he has regularly performed at the Wiener Staatsoper. Ever since his debut at short notice with Korngold's Die tote Stadt at 2022, he has returned to the Vienna State Opera on several occasions to conduct Die Fledermaus, Tosca, and Salome.
In 2006 he founded the International Mahler Orchestra (2006), of which he was the artistic director for ten years, and then in 2023 the 'oneMusic Orchestra' which was dedicated to relevant new music that is accessible to contemporary audiences. In 2025 he led the orchestra of the summer academy of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival.
photo by Christian Debus
Recommended read: The Future of Opera Lies in Warsaw by Axel Brüggemann (Backstage Classical)
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