Eliahu Inbal
“In Inbal, one can trace the clear traits of role models and teachers such as Franco Ferrara and Sergiu Celibidache; he possesses the strength for tranquility and the sense to create unbridled passion and dramatic effect.” － “Die Welt”
Since winning first prize in the Cantelli Conducting Competition at the age of 26, Inbal has enjoyed a career of international renown, conducting leading orchestras around the world. Over the years, he has been appointed principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony(hr-Sinfonieorchester), Teatro La Fenice in Venice, RAI National Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, who named him Conductor Laureate in 2014. From August 2019 on, Eliahu Inbal will take on the role of Principal Conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra.
During his tenure with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, whose honorary conductor he remains today, he distinguished himself with his outstanding musicianship. Based in Berlin, the charismatic Israeli conductor has garnered international acclaim for his interpretations of Mahler and Bruckner on a number of award-winning recordings (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Grand Prix du Disque), and was the first to record the original versions of Bruckner’s symphonies. He has received special recognition particularly for his interpretations of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Eliahu Inbal’s operatic engagements include an award-winning production of “Parsifal”, as well as “Tristan and Isolde” and “The Ring” tetralogy of Wagner. His extensive discography features a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.10 (completed version by D. Cooke), as part of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Mahler cycle in 2010, which was also released on DVD.
Born in Israel, Inbal studied violin and composition at the Jerusalem Music Academy before completing his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris on the recommendation of Leonard Bernstein. His teachers there included Louis Fourestier, Olivier Messiaen, and Nadia Boulanger. He was also greatly influenced by Franco Ferrara in Hilversum (Netherlands) and Sergiu Celibidache in Siena (Italy). In 1990, the French government named Eliahu Inbal an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. In February 2001 he was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit from the city of Vienna. He received the Goethe Badge of Honour from the City of Frankfurt and the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 2006.
