Thanksgiving Weekend: Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty

Recognized internationally as one of the stars of the new generation, Fabien Gabel is a regular guest of major orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia. He has been music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra since September 2013, and was recently appointed music director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes (French Youth Orchestra).

Following a highly-anticipated debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, Fabien embarks on an exciting 2017-18 season that will take him across the United States and Europe, including high-profile performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt’s Hessischer Rundfunk Orchester and the Orchestre de Paris. Additional American appearances include performances with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony. After an acclaimed debut with the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchestra last season, Gabel’s European engagements will again feature concerts throughout Germany (Staatskapelle Weimar in addition to Frankfurt), and welcome returns to the Orchestre de Paris, Helsinki Philharmonic, Antwerp Philharmonic and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Gabel has conducted leading orchestras around the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg, the DSO Berlin, Staatskappelle Dresden, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia di Roma, and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others.

His rapidly-expanding U.S. presence has seen him leading the Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra and more.

Fabien Gabel has worked with soloists like Emmanuel Ax, Gidon Cremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Julian Steckel, Johannes Moser, Antonio Meneses, Marc-André Hamelin, Beatrice Rana, Gautier Capuçon, and Simone Lamsma, or singers like Jennifer Larmore, Measha Bruggergosman, Danielle de Niese, Natalie Dessay, and Marie- Nicole Lemieux.

Fabien had 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 the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons. Since then, the LSO has engaged him regularly as a guest conductor.

He made his professional conducting debut in 2003 with the Orchestre National de France and has since returned frequently.  He now regularly conducts this orchestra in subscription concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and recently recorded a French opera aria CD with them and mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Naïve).

Born in Paris and a member of a family of accomplished musicians, Fabien 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 various 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 with Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis as their assistant.

Hailed for her “brilliant… polished, expressive and intense” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and “absolutely stunning” (Chicago Tribune) playing, Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma is respected by critics, peers and audiences as one of classical music’s most striking and captivating musical personalities.

With an extensive repertoire of over 60 Violin Concertos, Simone’s recent seasons have seen her perform with many of the world’s leading orchestras.

Notable recent highlights include performances with the Chicago Symphony, described by the Chicago Tribune as “piercingly beautiful”,  as well as the Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, National Symphony Washington, Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Les Siècles, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Hessischer Rundfunk, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, RTVE Symphony, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Highlights for the 17/18 and 18/19 season include debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Basque National Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and returns to the Warsaw Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bournemouth Symphony, RTE National Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Quebec Symphony, Oregon Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony. In addition she will be returning to the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.

Past seasons also marked several premières of new works by Simone, among which the world première of a violin concerto by Matijs de Roo during the ZaterdagMatinee series at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and a successful performance of the French première of Michel van der Aa’s Violin Concerto with the Orchestre National de Lyon.

Stand-out recent festival appearances include her return to the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Festival in 2015, debuts during the Enescu Festival with Les Siècles under François–Xavier Roth, Bravo! Vail Festival with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden, and the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, about which the San Diego Reader wrote: “She (Simone Lamsma) appeared to be engaged with Beethoven on a level we seldom encounter….. Beethoven’s music was coming through her in a pure state.”

Besides her close collaboration with Jaap van Zweden, Simone has worked many other eminent conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, James Gaffigan, Sir Andrew Davis, Mark Wigglesworth, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Jiří Bělohlávek, Carlos Kalmar, Marc Albrecht, Stéphane Denève, Edo de Waart, Hannu Lintu, Juanjo Mena, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Lawrence Foster, Robert Trevino, Fabien Gabel, François-Xavier Roth and Omer Meir Wellber.

A dedicated chamber musician, recent recital appearances include Simone’s highly anticipated debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall in March 2017 with pianist Robert Kulek.

In 2017 Simone’s most recent recording featuring Shostakovich’s first violin concerto and Gubaidulina’s ‘In Tempus praesens’ with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under James Gaffigan and Reinbert de Leeuw was released on Challenge Classics and received high accolades from the press, as did her previous Mendelssohn, Janáček and Schumann  CD with pianist Robert Kulek.

In addition to her many (inter)national prizes and distinctions, Simone was awarded the national Dutch VSCD Classical Music Prize in the category ‘New Generation Musicians’ in 2010, awarded by the Association of Dutch Theatres and Concert Halls to artists that have made remarkable and valuable contributions to the Dutch classical music scene.

In May 2018 Simone was invited by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of The Netherlands to perform during their official state visit to Luxembourg. In 2011 Simone performed during the Queen’s Day Concert, in the presence of HRH Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands – a concert that was broadcast nationally on Dutch television.

Simone began studying the violin at the age of 5 and moved to the UK aged 11 to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Hu Kun. At the age of 14 Simone made her professional solo debut with the North Netherlands Orchestra performing Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto, her debut highly praised by the press. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Professor Hu Kun and Professor Maurice Hasson, where she graduated aged 19 with first class honours and several prestigious awards. In 2011, she was made an Associate of the RAM, an honour given to those students who have made significant and distinguished contributions to their field. Simone currently lives in The Netherlands.

Simone plays the “Mlynarski” Stradivarius (1718), on generous loan to her by an anonymous benefactor.