Gabriel Chmura is about to begin his ninth season as Music Director of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. Previous posts include Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Germany,
Born in Poland, Gabriel Chmura grew up in Israel, where he studied piano and composition at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. He then studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux in Paris, Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and with Franco Ferrara in Siena, Italy. In 1971 he was the first prize-winner in the Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin, as well as the Cantelli Competition of Milano’s “La Scala.”
These victories led to extensive international engagements. Mr. Chmura was appointed Music Director in Aachen, Germany, in 1974 and retained this position until his Bochum appointment in 1983, which he kept until 1987, when he was appointed Music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada. With this orchestra he made extensive tours in North America, including Carnegie Hall in New York.
He made his Munich debut in 1974 with “Othello” and was immediately re-engaged for “Carmen”. Further he conducted a highly successful “Samson et Dalila” in Barcelona, a critically acclaimed “Werther” at the Paris Opera and “Coq d’Or” at the Chatelet Theatre, Paris, and most recently Gounod’s “Faust” directed by Robert Wilson at the Grand Opera in Warsaw.
With the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada he completed the “Da Ponte Cycle” ( Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte ). Mr. Chmura has recorded with the London Symphony for DGG, and with the Munich and the Berlin Radio Orchestras for CBS. Schubert’s “Lazarus” with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Hermann Prey and Edith Mathis on the “Orfeo” label received the “Grand Prix de Disque Mondial de Montreux”. His recording of Haydn’s symphonies no. 6, 7 and 8 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for CBC was chosen as “Best Choice” by the American Record Guide and was nominated for the Canadian JUNO Award.
Mr. Chmura is a regular conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Liege Philharmonic, with whom he has a series of concerts every year until 2003. His future and recent-past engagements include the return to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony ( 2001), the National Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa ( 2002 ), “Teatro Colon - Buenos Aires as well as to Mexico City, the Richmond (VA) Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille and Montpellier.
With his current orchestra he has already appeared at major European festivals that include the “Warsaw Autumn Festival” and the “Bratislava Music Festival.”
May 2010
