​A Biographical Sketch

Born in Trieste, the daughter of an Austrian father and an Italian mother, she displayed early evidence of manifold artistic gifts. She learnt the piano from a tender age, applied herself successfully to painting, and ultimately perfected her pianistic craft at the Conservatory „G. Tartini“ in Trieste as well as at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under Carlo Zecchi. Thereafter she pursued training as a conductor, studying inter alia with Pierre Dervaux at the Académie Internationale de Nice, with Franco Ferrara at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and at the Chigi Academy in Siena.

It was during this period that Gabriella Carli, still a pianist, was discovered by Gian Carlo Menotti at the Spoleto Festival; the Maestro offered her his support and guided her towards stage direction and conducting. She collaborated with legendary figures of the rostrum such as Karlheinz Stockhausen (Teatro Comunale, Bologna) and Sergiu Celibidache (Munich Philharmonic).

Her debut as a conductor followed in 1977. Simultaneously, she read literature and obtained her doctorate at the University of Padua. As the sole Italian female conductor, she participated in various international competitions (including the Juilliard School Competition in New York, the W. Strebi Prize at the Lucerne Festival, the „G. Fitelberg“ Competition in Katowice, and the Masterplayers Competition in Lugano). She conducted, amongst others, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gdańsk, the NOS Radio Orchestra of Hilversum, the Sofia Radio Orchestra, the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Caracas, the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona, the Municipal Orchestra of Solingen, and the Boston Youth Orchestra.

In 1987–1988 she was a scholarship holder of the German Music Council and served as assistant to Herbert von Karajan in Berlin. Until the Maestro’s death she worked alongside him, whilst continuing to direct her own ensembles, including the Berlin Chamber Ensemble which she had founded and which enjoyed the particular support of the then German Federal President, Richard von Weizsäcker. In 1990, RIAS – Kultur (Berlin) produced a documentary film about her. In the same year she was awarded, in recognition of her artistic merits, the honour of „Cavaliere Ufficiale“ of the Italian Republic.

Having suffered accidents and misfortunes, Gabriella Carli continued her work through benefit concerts, for instance on behalf of cancer patients. After she herself became a victim of violence in 2008, she devoted her commitment to victims of violence by means of numerous concerts for peace, which she performs in the name of the association she founded, „Stand up again“.

Returning to the concert platform, in 2011 together with the internationally renowned recorder soloist Maurice Steger and the „Ensemble Archi di Milano“ (of La Scala), she conducted a much acclaimed concert at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, subsequently released on compact disc. Further concerts followed with the same orchestra and other soloists (including Matthias Ziegler, Jürgen Franz, Peter Lukas Graf), as well as smaller performances at the piano.

For some years she has resided in Zurich, where she has read law and delivers lectures on human rights at universities. Aside from music, sport – particularly sailing – constitutes a great passion; it has inspired her to create nautical jewellery and motivated her to write a book.

She continually pursues novel and exciting projects, such as the current staging of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony through ballet, which was intended to form part of the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) festival in 2020 but, alas, had to be cancelled on account of the pandemic.

Besides those projects which fell victim to Covid, several were born of the pandemic itself, such as the so called „covidistic“ concerts of 2021 in Zurich and Basel (with the Berne Chamber Orchestra and violin soloists Bartlomiej Niziol and Keisuke Okasaki, both concertmasters of the Zurich Opera), which attracted the attention of the European Commission, culminating in an invitation to an international podcast (January 2022).

As a delegate of the Swiss Musicians’ Union (SMV), she delivered a lecture on the consequences of Covid at the University of Zurich in November 2022.

In December 2022, her association, under the auspices of the European Commission, organised a peace concert at the Milan Conservatory, which she conducted (soloist: Daniela Cammarano, violin).

Armed with a supporting letter from the European Commission and through the organisation of her association, she conducted the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (Prague) on 9 May 2023 in a peace concert at the Conservatoire in Brussels. In June 2023, she launched a series of anti stress music therapy sessions at the piano (Switzerland).

On 21 December 2023, she conducted a peace concert in Lucerne, organised by the association „Stand up again“ with the orchestra „Gruppo Strumentale Veneto – Gianfrancesco Malipiero“ and the soloists Sebastiano Maria Vianello Mirabello (first violin) and Tiziana Torneri (harp).

On 15 June 2024, on the occasion of the International Peace Conference on the Bürgenstock, she conducted the Second Peace Concert in the Maihof Church in Lucerne with the same orchestra. As a symbol of reconciliation, an international string quartet performed, comprising musicians from four countries at conflict: Ukraine (Giacobbe Stevanato, replacing at short notice the Ukrainian soloist), Russia (Mischa Kibardin), Palestine (Hisham Khoury), and Israel (Saida Bar-Lev).

On 23 December 2024, the Third Peace Concert took place under Mrs Carli’s direction in the Sacro Cuore Church in Lugano, with cello soloist Johann Sebastian Paesch.

With the same orchestra under Mrs Carli’s baton, both the Fourth Peace Concert in Zurich (Augustinerkirche, 27 May 2025; Giuseppe Barutti, cello, and Sebastiano Maria Vianello, violin) and the Fifth Peace Concert in Udine (Spazio Venezia, 8 November 2025; same programme as Lucerne 2024 with a quartet of violinists from the conflict countries: Oleg Shport, Ukraine; Dylan Blackmore, Russia; Elias Elias, Palestine; Saida Bar-Lev, Israel) took place.

Amongst future projects is the inaugural concert of the Cultural Centre for Peace of „Emergency“ (Gino Strada) in Venice.