FabienGabel

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  • Conductor

About Fabien

Chief Conductor: Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich

The 2025/2026 season marks Fabien Gabel’s first as Chief Conductor of the Tonkünstler-Orchester, Niederösterreich. 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.

During the 2025/2026 season Gabel will make his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Carmen and with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on a five-day tour of Spain with Yuja Wang. In Europe he returns to the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orquesta Sinfonia de Galicia and the BBC and City of Birmingham symphony orchestras. In the US he returns to the Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony and Toronto Symphony orchestras and will make his South American debut with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP).

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Edward Pascall

Edward Pascall

Associate Director

Logistics, contracts, press and marketing:

Fiona Russell

Fiona Russell

Senior Assistant Manager

Representation

Management for Europe and Asia with Askonas Holt

General manager:
USA and Australia/NZ: Opus 3 Artists, Tom Cunningham

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Season Highlights

Oct 2025
Musikverein Wien
R Strauss: Ein Heldenleben HK Gruber: Aerial Deutsch: Con moto Tonkünstler-Orchester Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet)
Oct 2025 - Nov 2025
Metropolitan Opera, New York
Bizet: Carmen
Dec 2025
Auditorium de Radio France
Pierne: Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied Suite no. 2 Moussa: Flute Concerto ( world premiere) Mussorgsky: Night on a bare mountain Strauss: Symphonic Fantasy on Dei Frau ohne Schatten Orchestre National de Radio France Emmanuel Pahud ( flute)
Jan 2026
Spanish tour
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Ligeti: Piano Concerto Mozart: ballet music from Idomeneo Mahler Chamber Orchestra Yuja Wang ( piano)
Apr 2026
Barbican Centre, London
Herrmann: Suite from Vertigo Latimer: Fearsome Creatures of Florida Blanchard: Orchestral suite from Fire Shut Up in My Bones Korngold: The Sea Hawk BBC Symphony Orchestra Selina Ott (trumpet)
May 2026
Symphony Hall Birmingham
Wagner: Vorspiel und Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde R Strauss: "Großmächtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos R Strauss: Das Rosenband R Strauss: Heimliche Aufforderung Opus 27, No. 3 R Strauss: Morgen Opus 27, No. 4 Interval R Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20 R Strauss: Symphonic Fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Nikola Hillebrand (soprano)
Jun 2026
Musikverein Wien
Marx: Romantisches Klavierkonzert Brahms: Symphony No. 4 Tonkünstler-Orchester Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

Video

Photos

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News

Press

  • Aspen Festival

    Jul 2025

    • From start to finish, the Aspen Festival Orchestra program was by far the best this season in the Klein Music Tent. Huge credit to Gabel for that. A one-time student here and now the music director of Lower Austria’s Tonkünstler Orchestra, he coaxed magnificent playing in works by Ravel and Richard Strauss. Whether it was finding ideal balances within the orchestra in the big, expressive moments, allowing all the layers of sound enough room to breathe or setting ideal paces to keep momentum in every piece on the program, the results were thrilling.

  • City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

    Symphony Hall

    • In the Mozart, Gabel struck a clear balance between playful, grandiose and elegant, swinging wildly through the assorted stylistic volte-faces that make up this strange but irresistible music. This was especially effective in the central Passepied, with tilting light and shade as its tonality shifted between major and minor.

  • Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal

    Maison Symphonique
    May 2024

    • His interpretations dig much deeper than just the surface gloss, and under his leadership the Montreal players responded with excitement and ardor, delivering thrilling performances that will stay long in the memory.

  • Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Debut

    Orchestra Hall
    Apr 2023

    • Gabel’s leadership was fluent and efficient, the musical result as eloquent and nuanced as it was brilliant. The music’s piquant and charming subtleties were manifestly at the tip of his baton from start to finish. Stravinsky’s brash brasses, buzzing strings and bubbly winds were measured and proportioned and contoured with unerring conviction and purpose.

    • The French conductor directed a boldly projected performance ... with committed playing across all sections that made the tale of the doomed title puppet spring vividly to life. Gabel’s incisive direction consistently brought out the drama and Stravinsky’s kaleidoscopic scoring and harmonic audacity. Everything registered with maximum impact: Petrushka’s desperate alienation and hopeless love for the Ballerina—good piano work from John Wilson on a problematic instrument—the malign brutishness of the Moor, the return to the fairgrounds and the final scene, chase and Petrushka’s death. Not only was coordination airtight throughout, but the responsive, firmly pointed orchestral playing sealed the performance. ...in this all-Russian program, Gabel was relaxed, confident and fully in command from the jump Thursday night in an impressive local debut.

Discography