Musical Director

Gabriel Pernet

Gabriel Pernet (Switzerland, 1998) was recently awarded the « Neeme Järvi Prize » at the Gstaad Conducting Academy and the « Paavo Järvi Scholarship » as well as the audience award at the Conductors Academy 2024/2025 with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He is also now one of the 6 semi-finalists of the « Concours de Genève — International Music Competition » that will lead him to work with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the Ensemble Contrechamps in November 2026.

Aged 27, Gabriel has already worked with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, the Bern Symphonieorchester, the Theater Orchester Biel-Solothurn and the Philharmonie Südwestfalen. In June 2025, the young Swiss conductor was invited to jump-in and conduct the Kammerochester Basel at the Mozartfest in Würzburg and at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele accompanying the young star soloist Alexandra Dovgan in two successful concerts. Since 2019, he has been the chief conductor, artistic director and co-founder of the Orchestre Symphonique en Vogue. Under his guidance, this youth orchestra has become one of the most sought-after in French-speaking Switzerland.

Gabriel is currently based in Zürich, where he is studying at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) under Prof. Christoph-Mathias Müller. Since 2023, he is also studying actively with Johannes Schlaefli in several masterclasses. Gabriel also had the opportunity to work with and learn from great conductors like Jaap van Zweden at the 2024 Gstaad Conducting Academy, as well as with Paavo Järvi at the 2024/25 Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich Conductors Academy. Recently he also had the chance to work with Daniele Gatti during a conducting academy with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Before starting his career as a conductor, Gabriel studied the clarinet, completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of the Arts Bern and a Master's degree at the Lucerne University of the Arts. This led him to perform with various professional orchestras in Switzerland.

For more information, visit his website: gabrielpernet.com