Born to an artistic family, Israeli-American conductor Yoel Gamzou has distinguished himself as a Mahler specialist amongst scholars and musicians alike. Having started his musical education with the cello, Yoel committed himself to orchestral conducting at the age of 12, later to start his conducting studies at 14.

Having commenced his formal education in Israel at the Catherine Lewis Conservatory and the Tel Aviv University, Yoel went on to study in New York, Paris and Milan, working with some of the greatest conductors of our time, among them Jorma Panula, Noam Sheriff, W.D. Vogel, Eugene Tzirlin, Jean Fournet, Piero Bellugi and others. Most notably, Yoel was the last student of Carlo Maria Giulini, with whom he has worked intensively until Giulini's passing.

Since 2004, Yoel has been preparing a new complete-version of Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony (realization of the drafts into a performable version), supported by the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, Wien and several independant scholars. The first movement of this version was premiered
by the International Mahler Orchestra on September 26th at the Philharmonie, Berlin

Moreover, he has completed various transcriptions of Mahler's works - amongst which, the Adagio from Symphony No. 9, arranged for Strings and two horns, the five "Ruckert-Lieder", arranged for Viola and Piano, the ?Adagietto? arranged for Violin and Piano etc. Recently he completed two versions of an arrangement of the 4th movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 7, ?Serenade-Nightmusic?, one for chamber orchestra (Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Harp and Strings) and a chamber-ensemble version (for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Harp and String quintet) which was premiered to high acclaim at the Rolandseck Festival in July 2008 by Guy Braunstein, Daishin Kashimoto, Amihai Grosz, Zvi Plesser, Nabiel Shehata, Francois Leleux, Joan-Enric Lluna, Chezy Nir and Marie-Pierre Langlemet.

Yoel has been supported by numerous organizations and private individuals, amongst which the Bischoffsheim-Guy Patin Foundation, Zfunot Tarbut and the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund. Along with his recent engagements in Germany, Yoel has conducted various orchestras in Italy, France, England, Israel and the US.

Along with his recent engagements in France, Yoel has conducted various orchestras in Italy, Germany, England, Israel and the US.

Since December 2006, Yoel has been serving as Artistic Director of the International Mahler Orchestra which he founded in London. The orchestra regularly performs across Europe and some of the landmarks of its first two seasons include a concert in memory of Carlo Maria Giulini in London with Guy Braunstein, concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker (who is closely associated with the IMO), the inauguration of the newly refurbished Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto (in collaboration with Marina Mahler, granddaughter of the composer and honorary president of the IMO), a special concert in Paris's Salle Gaveau in February 2008, and the debut in the Philharmonie, Berlin which took place on September 26th 2008 and was a great public and critical success.

In April 2007, Yoel was awarded the Special Encouragement Prize in the prestigious 2nd International Gustav Mahler conducting competition in Bamberg, Germany. As a result of the above, Yoel was invited to record a radio-production of Brahms' Tragic Overture and Furtwaengler's Overture op. 3 with the Bamberger Symphoniker, for the Bayerische Rundfunk.

Furthermore, Yoel has been working closely with the legendary violinist Ivry Gitlis who will play with the IMO in 2009 and from whom Yoel takes advice regularly.