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Yoel Gamzou

Birthday: March 10, 1988

About Yoel Gamzou

Born to an artistic family, Yoel Gamzou grew up in New York, London and Tel Aviv and started playing the cello at the age of four. It was the discovery of Mahler’s music when he was seven years old that led him to eventually dedicate himself to conducting when he was twelve. Gamzou’s teachers included Winston Dan Vogel, Jorma Panula, Jean Fournet and Piero Bellugi. He later travelled to Italy in order to meet his greatest idol. After numerous attempts, he was granted five minutes with Carlo Maria Giulini, with whom he ended up working intensively for two years until the maestro’s death, being his last student.

In 2006 Gamzou founded the International Mahler Orchestra, becoming its artistic director and principal conductor. The IMO, comprising of hand-picked members from over 25 countries, aims to explore a different approach to orchestral-playing and follows a democratic “ethos”in its activities. At the age of 19, Gamzou was awarded the Special Prize of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition. In 2010, he achieved international recognition when his completion of Mahler’s unfinished Tenth Symphony (realisation and elaboration of the sketches) was published by Schott Music. The premiere in Berlin, with Gamzou conducting his International Mahler Orchestra, was highly acclaimed by Mahler experts, the press and the audience. In 2011, he stepped in at short notice to conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with the Kassel State Orchestra. This debut was greatly acclaimed and led to an immediate appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra. From 2012 until 2015, Yoel Gamzou was  serving as First Kapell­meister and Vice Music Director of the Kassel State Theatre, where he was highly praised by the critics and the audience for his premiers of "Fidelio", "Rigoletto", "Tosca" and "Il barbiere di Siviglia" as well as for leading different symphony concert programs.

Yoel Gamzou has worked with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Hamburg Symphony, the German Radio Philharmonic and the Stuttgart Philharmonic. His work with the IMO serves as a continuous base for selected guest conducting activities, e.g. the Malaysian, Belgrade, Jena and Stuttgart Philharmonics, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the WDR Funkhausorchester.

In February 2012 Gamzou won the Berenberg Culture Prize (Hamburg), and in March 2013 he was honoured with the prestigious Princess Margriet Award of the European Cultural Foundation.

www.gamzou.com

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