ABOUT
American violinist and conductor Gabriel Lefkowitz has captivated audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad in a dynamic and multi-faceted career as a performer, creator, and educator.
Gabriel is the Concertmaster & Resident Conductor of The Louisville Orchestra, Artistic Director & Conductor of the Louisville Civic Orchestra, Artistic Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Louisville, and is active as a soloist, guest conductor, guest concertmaster, chamber musician, and teacher. A progressive musician of the 21st century, Gabriel is also a composer who has written the music for several video games, composed several full length albums of original music (one of which has over a million views on YouTube), and was the featured violin soloist on the soundtrack for the film Harriet (Focus Features).
Conductor
At The Louisville Orchestra, Gabriel is the newly appointed Resident Conductor (in addition to his role as Concertmaster). This season at the LO, Gabriel conducts a leg of the orchestra’s statewide In Harmony Tour, a live-to-picture film score (Nosferatu), several family, community, and holiday concerts, and a Pops concert with Michael Feinstein.
As Artistic Director & Conductor of the Louisville Civic Orchestra since 2020, Gabriel has led the organization to new artistic heights and civic distinction for its high quality performances, diverse programming and audience engagement, and fundraising/outreach initiatives on behalf of homeless shelters, cancer support networks, and healthcare workers. Highlights of the 2024-2025 LCO Season include performances of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony and Berlioz’ Symphony Fantastique.
As Founder & Artistic Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Louisville, 24/25 marks the second season of this dynamic professional ensemble and features three performances of varied repertoire, including Handel’s Messiah in December.
In October 2024, Gabriel makes his conducting debut with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, leading a program of Tanner Porter, Richard Strauss, and Josef Suk.
Passionate about inspiring the next generation of musicians, Gabriel has conducted/coached the youth orchestras of Boston, Taiwan, Knoxville, Central Kentucky, and Juilliard’s Pre-College division, as well as multiple educational clinics around the U.S. and abroad.
Violinist
During his 8-year tenure as Concertmaster of The Louisville Orchestra so far, Gabriel has led nearly 200 different programs from the concertmaster chair and has performed the violin concerti of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Bach, Vivaldi, and others. In October 2019, Gabriel performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with LO music director Teddy Abrams, Jim James, and several LO colleagues to promote the orchestra's new album The Order of Nature.
This season at the LO, Gabriel performs Ellen Taafe Zwilich’s Double Concerto alongside LO principal cellist Nicholas Finch. They will additionally perform a new commission by composer Alex Berko on the same program, also written for violin, cello, and orchestra.
In 2011, at the age of 23, Gabriel became one of the youngest concertmasters of a professional orchestra in the U.S. when he was appointed Concertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. During his 6-year tenure with KSO, Gabriel performed the concerti of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Mozart (No. 3), and others. He also founded the KSO’s still beloved and wildly successful Concertmaster Series (then called Gabriel Lefkowitz & Friends) at which he performed over 30 recitals (16 different programs with no overlapping repertoire) over the course of 5 seasons.
Recent guest engagements include concerto performances of Brahms (Brevard Philharmonic), Stravinsky (Monteux School and Music Festival Orchestra), Florence Price No. 1 (McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra - the Ohio premiere of this work), Mozart No. 4 (Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra), Mozart No. 5 (Oak Ridge Symphony), Philip Glass No. 1 (Ocala Symphony), and performing as guest concertmaster with the Phoenix Symphony, Brevard Music Center, Britt Festival Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Nu Deco Ensemble.
Composer
Under the alias Green Forge Studio Gabriel has composed the soundtracks for multiple video games, including the recent releases Aces & Adventures and Pop-Up Dungeon. He also created music for the multi-million dollar theme resort Ancient Lore Village in East Tennessee. His concert music has been performed by the Phoenix Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, and the Dubuque Festival Orchestra. He has released four original albums (and one Christmas album!) to YouTube, and his music has been enjoyed by over a million users on the platform, in addition to being licensed by a multitude of content creators, podcasters, and Twitch streamers.
Gabriel holds a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University where he studied music and economics and a Masters from The Juilliard School where he studied violin with Joel Smirnoff and Masao Kawasaki. He has studied conducting with pedagogues including Michael Jinbo, Markand Thakar, Larry Rachleff, David Effron, and others.