Fabien Gabel is Music Director of the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, leading concerts across the orchestra’s homes in Vienna’s Musikverein, St. Pölten, and Grafenegg. He has established an international career of the highest calibre, appearing with orchestras such as Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Seoul Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his imaginative programs, Gabel crafts eclectic combinations of beloved masterworks and lesser-known gems of the repertoire.
In the 2026/27 season, he returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and makes debuts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Dresdner Philharmonie. Following his celebrated debut at The Metropolitan Opera ("Carmen"), he returns to Opéra national de Paris in June and July 2027 for Gounod’s "Roméo et Juliette".
Now in his second season as Music Director, Fabien Gabel’s programs with the Tonkünstler-Orchester embrace Austrian composers including Mahler, Schreker, Korngold and Thomas Larcher. He leads Zemlinsky’s "Die Seejungfrau" in Vienna, as well as for his return to the Utah Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gabel has a close association with the music of Ravel, which he conducts in Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, and Vienna. He brings French rarities to his Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra debut, pairing Dukas’s "La Péri" and Debussy’s "Khamma" with Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Veronika Eberle. In Dresden, he reunites with Katia and Marielle Labèque for Philip Glass’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, alongside Mussorgsky’s "Khovanshchina Overture" and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony.
In France, he works regularly with all major Parisian orchestras and Opéra national de Paris. He 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 shown in theatres, on French television, and Netflix.
Fabien Gabel performs with many of the world’s leading soloists, including Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Bertrand Chamayou, Seong-Jin Cho, Yunchan Lim, Francesco Piemontesi, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Augustin Hadelich, Vilde Frang, Daniel Lozakovich, Christian Tetzlaff, Gautier Capuçon, Daniel Müller-Schott, Johannes Moser, Håkan Hardenberger and Emmanuel Pahud. His collaborations with singers include Benjamin Bernheim, Nicole Car, Joyce DiDonato, Asmik Grigorian, Nikola Hillebrand, Petra Lang, Isabel Leonard, Lisette Oropesa, Michael Schade, Golda Schultz and Michael Spyres.
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 from 2004 to 2006. He was Music Director of Orchestre symphonique de Québec from 2012 to2021 and of Orchestre Français des Jeunes from 2017 to 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 with Reinhold Friedrich. 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. Gabel was named ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French government in January 2020.