Ruben Gazarian has been chosen as the new Principal Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra this week. He will assume this position with beginning of the 2024-2025 concert season. The orchestra’s board chairman, Moshe Ne’eman, stated that Gazarian is well-known today as a musical intellectual force, innovative and influential figure in the world of music. “We are proud and happy that Gazarian, who was among the winners of the Georg Solti conducting competition and serves as General Music Director of the Altenburg-Gera Theatre in Germany; who successfully led the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn in Germany for 16 years, before that was Principal Conductor of the West Saxon Symphony Orchestra (now: Leipzig Symphony Orchestra), will come to conduct our chamber orchestra.“
It was further stated that Gazarian was selected for his role here by the board after receiving overwhelming endorsement from the orchestra’s musicians, who had a fruitful collaboration with him in concerts performed under his direction in March of this year. “Gazarian, who lives and breathes music in every fiber of his being, will bring authentic performance and true interpretation with insight, great courage, and inner strength to music from all periods and genres and will serve as inspiration for the orchestra and the audience,” Ne’eman added.
Ruben Gazarian, born in Armenia and residing in Germany, has numerous impressive achievements to his name: behind him are already almost two thousand concerts and dozens of recordings covering a wide range of styles and expressive forms that have captivated large audiences and earned him the “Golden Coin” award from the city of Heilbronn.
Artists, who work with him, praise his broad musical education, his meticulous rehearsal work layer upon layer, his deep emotional understanding of color, sound, and aesthetics, his connection to the Western musical heritage but also to the spirit of the times and the human experience. According to their testimony, not only is it fascinating and captivating to work with him, but they also receive from him an attitude of respect, caring and warmth.
In response to the news, Ruben Gazarian said, „Israel is a country where I have enjoyed a wonderful musical collaboration with several orchestras for years already, with numerous heart-warming concert memories and human encounters.
Thus, I am all the more delighted to have been appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra. We only just got to know each other a few weeks ago and already during the first day of rehearsals you could feel, how much the chemistry plus the musical and human communication between us was immediately perfect. The intensive rehearsals, the two concert evenings in Tel Aviv, the amazing overall unity and the mutual harmony that has developed in such a short period of time, give me every reason to look forward to a promising collaboration and many musical highlights in the future!“