Gábor, Ferenc

Ferenc Gábor was born in Transylvania. He began his musical studies at the Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, then won a scholarship to the School of Music in Tel-Aviv where he studied under Gad Levertoff. His other teachers included Haim Taub, Uzi Wiesel, Bruno Giuranna, Kim Kashkashian, the Amadeus and the Juilliard String Quartets, György Kurtág, and Péter Eötvös. He was a member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra between 1986 and 1994, and joined the Konzerthausorchester Berlin as principal violist in 1994. He is a founding member of the Israeli Gertler Quartet. Recently, he has been taking the stage not only as a violist and chamber musician, but also as a conductor of smaller, unusual formations such as the Ensemble Unitedberlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca, the Oradea Philharmony and Târgu Mureş Philharmonic, as well as the Ankara Presidential and Istanbul State Symphony Orchestras. In 2009 he met great success as stand-in conductor at the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s concert in Toulouse. A regular guest conductor at the Mozart Festival in Cluj-Napoca, Ferenc Gábor’s dedication to contemporary music is demonstrated by his various world premières of 20th and 21st century operas and orchestral pieces. In 2007 he founded his own ensemble, the Solistenensemble Ligatura Berlin. At the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, he inspired and led several youth projects, including the Young Euro Classic festival. While for nearly 10 years he has also been a regular training conductor and instructor at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. He also teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).  Since 2007, he has been a regular face at the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s projects.