Fabien Gabel

Fabien Gabel has established an international career of the highest caliber, appearing with orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Oslo Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his dynamic style and sensitive approach to the score, he is best known for his eclectic repertoire choices ranging from core symphonic works to new music to championing lesser-known composers of the 19th and the 20th century.

Gabel’s 2022-2023 season includes a number of highly-anticipated debuts, beginning with the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, followed by the Wiener Symphoniker, and at Opéra de Paris, leading Calixto Beito’s production of ‘Carmen’, while in North America he makes his debuts with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Baltimore. The season also includes return appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

Also in Paris, in the current season he embarks upon a large-scale project to record the music for Abel Gance’s 1927 epic silent film "Napoléon" with the Orchestre National de France and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, in a production which will appear in cinemas, for online streaming and in live performances.

Fabien Gabel performs with soloists such as Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Bertrand Chamayou, Seong-Jin Cho, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gidon Kremer, Augustin Hadelich, Simone Lamsma, Daniel Lozakovich, Christian Tetzlaff, Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Mueller-Schott, Johannes Moser, Håkan Hardenberger, Emmanuel Pahud, and with singers such as Measha Brueggergosman, Natalie Dessay, Petra Lang, Jennifer Larmore, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Danielle de Niese, and Michael Schade.

Having attracted international attention in 2004 as the winner of the Donatella Flick conducting competition, Fabien Gabel was assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra 2004-2006. He was music director of Orchestre Symphonique de Québec 2012-2021 and Orchestre Francais de Jeunes 2017-2021. 

Born in Paris to a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien Gabel began playing the trumpet at the age of six and honed his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He played with various Parisian orchestras under prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, and Bernard Haitink before embarking on his conducting career.