Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Hailed as “boldly evocative,” Fabien Gabel is recognized internationally as one of the stars of a new generation of conductors, having established a broad repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to contemporary new works and championing lesser-known works by French composers. He has been the Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec since 2012 and Music Director of the innovative Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2017.

Gabel’s 2019-20 season features debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, and Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, his eighth season as Music Director of the OSQ where he will lead the orchestra in works by Chausson, Ravel, Duparc, Dutilleux, Aubert, Schmitt, Dubugnon, Rebel, Tomasi, and Poulenc, and collaborations with world-class soloists including Augustin Hadelich, Juho Pohjonen, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Michael Barenboim, Ana María Martínez, Philippe Jaroussky, and more. He also returns this season to conduct the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

His conducting has taken him across the globe to lead top orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Cleveland Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Seoul Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra D.C., Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Tonkünstler Orchester, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmania Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, and Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Gabel has worked with the world’s most formidable soloists including Emanuel Ax, Seong-Jin Cho, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alina Pogostkina, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antonio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon, Simone Lamsma, Xavier de Maistre, and Bertrand Chamayou, and singers such as Anne Sophie Von Otter, Michael Schade, Petra Lang, Jennifer Larmore, Measha Brueggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay, and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Gabel first attracted international attention in 2004 winning the Donatella Flick competition in London, which subsequently led to his appointment as the LSO’s assistant conductor for two seasons. Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor.

Born in Paris into a family of accomplished musicians, Gabel began studying trumpet at the age of six, honing his skills at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which awarded him a First Prize in trumpet in 1996, and later at the Musik Hochschule of Karlsruhe. He went on to play in several Parisian orchestras under the direction of prominent conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle and Bernard Haitink. In 2002, Fabien Gabel pursued his interest in conducting at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman, who invited him to appear as a guest conductor at the Festival in 2009. He has worked as an assistant to Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis.

Born in Tokyo and beginning her musical career in Montréal and New York, violinist Karen Gomyo has recently made Berlin her home. A musician of the highest calibre, the Chicago Tribune praised her as "…a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity".

Karen’s 2019/20 season features European debuts with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Cristian Macelaru, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with Jonathan Nott, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern with Pietari Inkenen, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Gergely Madaras and Dresdner Philharmoniker with Roderick Cox, as well as returns to Bamberg Symphoniker and Polish National Radio Symphony, among others. Other recent European appearances include Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Radio France, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Danish National Symphony, and in March 2019 Karen opened the Dubai Proms with the BBC Symphony and Ben Gernon. Further ahead Karen makes her debut at the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with Semyon Bychkov.

Already well established in North America Karen has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestras, and the symphony orchestras of Detroit, San Francisco, Dallas, Cincinnati, Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.

Further afield her popularity in Australasia continued over the last few seasons as she toured with New Zealand Symphony and also appeared with West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth, Tasmanian Symphony and in recital at the Sydney Opera House. This season sees Karen return to the Melbourne and Sydney symphony orchestras. In Asia she makes her debuts with the Singapore Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Strongly committed to contemporary works, Karen gave the North American premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Concerto No. 2 Mar'eh in 2015 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington under the baton of the composer. In May 2018 she performed the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ new Chamber Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to great critical acclaim. The work was written specifically for Karen and commissioned by the CSO’s ‘Music Now’ series for their 20th anniversary.

Karen has had the pleasure of working with such conductors as, Sir Andrew Davis, Cristian Macaleru, David Robertson, David Zinman, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hannu Lintu, Jaap van Zweden, Jakub Hrusa, James Gaffigan, Karina Canellakis, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée, Mark Wigglesworth, Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Neeme Järvi, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Søndergård, Vasily Petrenko and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

A passionate chamber musician, Karen has enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with guitarist Ismo Eskelinen which culminates in the release of a recording of works by Paganini and his baroque predecessors scheduled for November 2019 on BIS Records. Karen has also collaborated with Kathryn Stott, Leif Ove Andsnes, James Ehnes, Antoine Tamestit, Emmanuel Pahud, Lawrence Power, Christian Poltéra, Alisa Weilerstein, Tine Thing Helseth, Lars Anders Tomter, Eric le Sage, Daishin Kashimoto, Paul Meyer, and the late Heinrich Schiff. She gave a three-week tour of Australia with Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has also joined Jeremy Denk at his Milton Court/Barbican residency in London. She also appears regularly at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Future chamber plans include a new piano trio with pianist Olli Mustonen and cellist Julian Steckel.

Karen participated as violinist, host, and narrator in a documentary film produced by NHK Japan about Antonio Stradivarius called The Mysteries of the Supreme Violin, which was broadcast worldwide on NHK WORLD.

She is also a champion of the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla, with plans in development for a diverse programme with the San Francisco Symphony. Karen regularly collaborates with Piazzolla’s longtime pianist and tango legend Pablo Ziegler, as well as, more recently, with bandoneon players Hector de Curto and JP Jofre.

Karen plays on the “Aurora” Stradivarius violin of 1703 that was bought for her exclusive use by a private sponsor.