Gabriel Bebeşelea is Principal Conductor of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest and Artistic Director of the period instrument ensemble and festival Musica Ricercata.

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Bebeşelea enjoys a vibrant international career, being guest of acclaimed ensembles such as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Tonkunstler Orchestra, the PKF-Prague Philharmonia, etc.

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His 2023/24 season kicks off with appearances at the “George Enescu” Festival alongside Musica Ricercata and Lawrence Brownlee, and sees him conduct performances of Arnold Schoenberg’s monumental “Gurrelieder”, return to the Bochumer Symphoniker, Ulster Orchestra, the Zagreb Phil- harmonic Orchestra and the “Transylvania” State Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was Principal Conductor between 2016 - 2023.

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A remarkable opera conductor, Bebeşelea was named Principal Conductor of the Romanian National Opera of Iaşi in 2011, becoming the youngest ever Principal Conductor in Romania. In 2015 he was named Principal Conductor of the National Romanian Opera House of Cluj-Napoca.

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In recent seasons, he has led performances of Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride" at the Perm Opera, Rossini's "Il viaggio a Reims" at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Francesco Cilea’s "Adriana Lecouvreur” at the National Opera House Timisoara (European Capital of Culture 2023) and a new production of “Manon Lescaut” at the Slovenian National Theater Maribor.

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Gabriel Bebeșelea is known to devote himself to researching and rediscovering music and he is responsible for uncovering several long forgotten or neglected musical masterpieces. In 2017, to bring such music to light, he founded the ensemble Musica Ricercata - an international artistic collective dedicated to the historically informed performance of music spanning from the baroque to modern eras, with an emphasis on early music.

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With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, he recorded a CD featuring George Enescu’s rediscovered oratorio “Strigoii” (The Ghosts) and his “Pastorale - Fantaisie pour petite orchestre” (edition curated by Gabriel Bebeşelea).

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In 2015, Gabriel Bebeşelea studied with two of the world’s most appreciated conductors: Bernard Haitink at the Lucerne Festival at Easter and with Kurt Masur at the Aurora Classical Festival. Bebeșelea was also mentored by Alberto Zedda at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

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In 2011 he was awarded a scholarship consisting of an internship at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, where he had the possibility to assist at the rehearsals and concerts of some of the most representative conductors nowadays: Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Philippe Herreweghe, David Zinman and Eliahu Inbal.

 

Born in 1987, Gabriel Bebeşelea is winner of the 1st prize of the “Lovro von Matačić” Conducting Competition (Zagreb 2015) and the 1st prize in the “Jeunesses Musicales” Conducting Competition (Bucharest 2011).

 

In 2018, Gabriel Bebeşelea obtained his PhD with “summa cum laude” at the National University of Music Bucharest.

 

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