Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano

Israeli-American conductor and composer Yoel Gamzou is regarded as one of the most remarkable figures of a new generation of conductors. His interpretations are marked by extraordinary intensity and a deeply personal approach.
He begins the 2025/26 season with a series of high-profile concert and opera engagements, including notable returns to the BBC Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

© photo Christian Debus

In the operatic pit, he conducts again at the Bavarian State Opera, leading Fidelio —including performances at the Munich Opera Festival— as well as Der Freischütz at the Hamburg State Opera, following his leadership of the production’s premiere run in the previous season. He also makes his debut at the Opéra National de Montpellier with a new production of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci.
In summer 2025, he conducted Salome at the Baltic Opera Festival, followed by a tour with the Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic. In the 2024/25 season, he opened with a new production of Der Freischütz in Hamburg and made debuts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and the Essen Philharmonic. He returned to the Sinfonieorchester Bern, the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg, and the Vienna State Opera with Salome. The season concluded with the world premiere of Elmar Lampson’s Wellen at the Theater Bremen.
In 2023, Gamzou founded the oneMusic Orchestra, which gave its debut at the Beethovenfest in Bonn. From 2017 to 2022, he served as General Music Director of Theater Bremen, where his productions included Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Die Fledermaus, Die tote Stadt, L’Étoile, Der Rosenkavalier, Jenůfa and Carmen, among many others.
As a guest conductor, Gamzou has appeared at the Hamburg State Opera (Carmen, Tosca, Die tote Stadt, Der Freischütz), the Bavarian State Opera (Il Segreto di Susanna, Schön ist die Welt, Die tote Stadt), the Vienna State Opera (Tosca, Die Fledermaus, Die tote Stadt, Salome), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Tosca), the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden (Turandot, Carmen, Die lustige Witwe), the Gothenburg Opera (Die schweigsame Frau), and the Aalto Theater Essen (Der Freischütz). He also conducted Marina Abramović’s The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas at the English National Opera, Opéra de Paris, Greek National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro di San Carlo, and the Bavarian State Opera.

As a symphonic conductor, Gamzou has worked with orchestras including the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Bremen Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Vienna Symphony, and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, Deutsches Radio-Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others.
In 2006, he founded the International Mahler Orchestra (IMO), made up of musicians from over 25 countries. His completion of Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony was premiered in 2010 and published by Schott Music. He was First Kapellmeister and Deputy General Music Director at the Staatstheater Kassel from 2012 to 2015.
An active composer, Gamzou’s most recent large-scale composition, The Portrait – Archaeology of an Obsession, is written for large orchestra and speaker, and is based on poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The work is published by Schott Music and was premiered in January 2025 at the Konzerthaus Berlin, conducted by Gamzou himself, with Sir Tim Rice performing the role of the speaker.
Gamzou has received several awards, including the ECHO Klassik Award (Emerging Artist – Conductor) in 2017, the Princess Margriet Award in 2013, and the Berenberg Culture Prize in 2012. He grew up in New York, London, and Tel Aviv, and had the honor of being the final student of Carlo Maria Giulini.

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