Gabriel Feltz
Gabriel Feltz is chief conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra as of the 2017/2018 concert season. Since 2013, Feltz has been working concurrently as general music director of the Dortmund Opera and chief conductor of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and after three very successful years his contract has been renewed through 2023. In addition to the Philharmonic Orchestra Altenburg-Gera (2001-2005) and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra (2004–2013), this is his third consecutive position as chief conductor of a German orchestra.
By introducing some unusual programs and achieving a significant improvement in artistic quality with all these orchestras, he has managed to boost their concert attendance greatly. In 2007, the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation awarded Gabriel Feltz and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra the Prix Rachmaninoff for their interpretation of the concert cycle of Rachmaninoff’s music. In addition, Feltz was principal guest conductor at the Basel Theater (2008-2013), where he completed several opera productions, which resulted in the Basel Theater being named Opera House of the Year in 2009 and 2010.
Gabriel Feltz was born in Berlin in 1971. From 1989 to 1994 he studied piano and orchestra conducting at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory in Berlin. After completing his studies, he was assistant to Gerd Albrecht at the Hamburg State Opera (1994-1995). His first employment was with the Lübeck Opera (1995-1997) and the Theater Bremen (1997-2001).
Gabriel Feltz has conducted leading orchestras in Germany and abroad, including the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Symphonieorchester of the Bayerischen Rundfunk, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the orchestra of the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Essen Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin (RSB), Cologne (WDR), Leipzig (MDR), Hanover (NDR) and Saarbrücken (SR), the German National Youth Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestra of the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), the KBS Symphony Orchestra Seoul, the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse, as well as the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
In 2017 Feltz conducted Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow during a tour with the Berlin Comic Opera. That same year he also conducted the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic from Hangzhou, and he completed his series of recordings of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies with the Dortmund Philharmonic. In Belgrade he conducted the Belgrade Philharmonic at the biggest open-air concert of classical music in Serbia’s history, attended by some 25,000 people.
Feltz’s repertoire for the 2017/2018 season features new productions of Arabella by Richard Strauss, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovski, and a Rachmaninoff/Tchaikovsky ballet production in the Dortmund Opera, as well as concerts of Mahler’s eight symphonies (including the recording of a CD) with the Dortrmund Philharmonic. As chief conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic, he will be conducting eight concert programs in the current concert season.
Gabriel Feltz’s extensive discography makes him one of the most prominent conductors of his generation. His repertoire ranges from Mozart and Beethoven, to Rachmaninoff, Elgar, Prokofiev, Scriabin and Richard Strauss, to Luigi Nono and György Ligeti.
In 2007, Gabriel Feltz started recording all of Mahler’s symphonies with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra for the Dreyer Gaido record label. The cycle has been highly acclaimed by critics as the most “extraordinary and controversial series in recent years.”
The recording of Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 performed by the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of the Bremen Opera under Gabriel Feltz, was awarded the Diapason d’Or in June 2013. Ottorino Respighi’s Belkis – Queen of Sheba, was released in 2013 on Blu-ray. This recording is the first complete performance of this piece since its world premiere in 1932 at Milan’s La Scala. The TV production of Aida am Rhein has brought Feltz huge success all over Europe (with live coverage on Swiss TV, 3Sat, RAI, ZDF) and is also available on DVD.
Gabriel Feltz’s most recent release is Symphony No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff (from the Rachmaninoff Cycle) with the Dortmund Philharmonic (for Dreyer Gaido records).
Gabriel Feltz’s first recording with the Belgrade Philharmonic is Symphony No. 3 by Reinhold Glière, published by Dreyer-Gaido in 2018.
