Gustavo Gimeno
Chef d’orchestre
The talk is of a “conducting surprise” ([Der Spiegel]), a “magician” ([Télécran]) who works in precise detail with rhythmic power, full of temperament and charisma. This is Gustavo Gimeno, who delights audiences, press and orchestra alike – even though the career of the music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has been quite unusual.
Until 2012, the Spanish-born Gustavo Gimeno was principal percussionist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, before training under Bernard Haitink and Claudio Abbado and eventually becoming assistant to Mariss Jansons. At that time, he had no concrete plans to make a career as a conductor – until Gimeno stepped in at short notice for an indisposed Jansons: a brilliant debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was followed by many other conducting engagements, such as with the Munich Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Since 2015 Gustavo Gimeno has been music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, which he conducts in numerous concert formats in Luxembourg and with which he performs in many of the most prestigious concert halls in Europe. As an internationally sought-after guest conductor, he works with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also appeared as an opera conductor. Gustavo Gimeno made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2021 with a programme that introduced the audience to works by Sergei Prokofiev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov as well as György Ligeti’s little-known [Concert Românesc].
