Michele Gamba
Rapidly establishing himself as one of the most eclectic interpreter of recent years, Michele had his debut at Covent Garden Linbury Theatre conducting Mozart Bastien und Bastienne and a staged version of Berios's Folk Songs. He then appeared at the Berlin State Opera for a new production of Le nozze di Figaro directed by Jürgen Flimm, gaining great success from the audience and critic alike.
After his assistantships with Antonio Pappano and Daniel Barenboim, he is invited to conduct for several important theaters and orchestras in Europe. After his debut at Milan Teatro alla Scala in 2016 he has developped a strong collaboration with the famous opera house and orchestra, which led him to conduct seven production in the past few years: the world premiere Madina by Fabio Vacchi, the Opening Gala A riveder le stelle in 2020, L'elisir d'amore, Le nozze di Figaro, an all-Schumann recital with baritone Markus Werba and the highly acclaimed new production of Rigletto staged by renowned director Mario Martone.
He was invited to Dresden Semperoper to conduct Die Zauberflöte for the production which marked the reopening of the theatre after the pandemic. Other recent engagements have seen him regularly on the podium of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (for several symphonic concerts and a new production of Linda di Chamounix directed by Cesare Lievi), Hamburg State Opera (Le nozze di Figaro), Stuttgart (La bohème and Sonnambula), Strasbourg Opera (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Toulouse Capitole (Macbeth), Tel Aviv Opera (Idomeneo and a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro directed by David Pountney). At Rome Opera and Berlin Deutsche Oper he has conducted Rigoletto.
Particularly active in the symphonic repertoire and with a deep interest for new music, Michele has often conducted orchestras and ensembles like Orchestra Nazionale della Rai, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Divertimento Ensemble, Slovenian Philharmonic. He has opened the 2019 edition of Milano Musica Festival and has closed the 2021 series, conducting a broad variety of new commissions by composers like Francesconi, Saunders, Vacchi, Reich, Adès and offering programmes of remarkable cultural refinement, pairing great authors from nowadays to classics of the XX century like Berg, Mahler, Šostakovi膷, Britten.
Performing at the piano remains a true necessity for him - he keeps collaborating with many chamber music partners at Munich Gasteig, London Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie. Out now is the brand new cd Correspondences with cellist Martina Rudi膰, which offers fascinating parallels between Bach, Berio and Boulez.
Future engagements include the Met in New York for L'elisir d'amore, the Washington National Opera for Il trovatore, and a much awaited come back to La Scala, as a pianist this time, with baritone Markus Werba for Schubert Winterreise.
Michele Gamba was born in Milan where he completed his musical studies at Conservatorio "G. Verdi" and read Philosophy ath Milan State University, with a dissertation on Hannah Arendt The human condition. He subsequently attended piano masterclsses with Maria Tipo at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, studied chamber music at the Royal Academy in London and orchestral conducting at Accademia Chigiana di Siena and Vienna Musikhochschule.