Fabien Gabel is Music Director Designate of the Tonkünstler-Orchester, a position which begins with the 2025/2026 season. He has established an international career of the highest calibre, appearing with orchestras such as Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, The Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seoul Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his dynamic style and sensitive approach to the score, he is best known for his eclectic choice of repertoire, ranging from core symphonic works to new music to championing lesser-known composers of the 19th and the 20th century.

The 2024/2025 season includes Gabel’s return to Chicago Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Melbourne Symphony, and others. He debuts with the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, and leads concerts with Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna, St. Pölten, and Grafenegg.

In France, Gabel works regularly with all major Paris orchestras and had a highly acclaimed debut at the Opéra national de Paris in 2022/2023. Gabel recently led the recording of a new score for Abel Gance’s 1927 epic film ‘Napoléon’ with the Orchestre National de France and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. The first part of the film was presented at the 2024 Festival de Cannes and will be shown in theatres, on French television, and Netflix.

Fabien Gabel performs with soloists such as Daniil Trifonov, Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Bertrand Chamayou, Seong-Jin Cho, Francesco Piemontesi, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gidon Kremer, Augustin Hadelich, Vilde Frang, 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, Nikola Hillebrand, Asmik Grigorian 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 Français des 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. Fabien Gabel was named ‘Chevaliers des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French government in January 2020.

French and Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six. He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet. He won 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Competitions, and at age 22 Emmanuel joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position which he still holds today. In addition, he enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician.

Emmanuel appears regularly at prominent concert series, festivals and orchestras worldwide, and has collaborated as a soloist with leading conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nézét-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich, Zinman.

Emmanuel is a dedicated chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich, as well as jazzing with Jacky Terrasson. In 1993, Emmanuel founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence together with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which is still a unique chamber music festival today. He also continues chamber music performances and recordings with “Les Vents Français”, one of the premiere wind quintets featuring François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic.

He is committed to expanding the flute repertoire and commissions new flute works every year to composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Eric Montalbetti, Luca Francesconi and Erkki-Sven Tüür.

Since 1996, Emmanuel has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards, resulting in one of the most significant contributions to recorded flute music.

Emmanuel was honored to receive the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, is HonRAM of the Royal Academy of Music, an Ambassador for Unicef and recipient of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize for 2024.