Gábor Káli is a Hungarian conductor born in Budapest, who studied piano and conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 2018 he won first prize at the inaugural Hong Kong International Conducting Competition and the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. He came to wide international attention in April 2019 when Iván Fischer personally asked him to step in with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, earning standing ovations in Hamburg, Paris and Luxembourg. Particularly sought-after for his deep knowledge of Bartók's works, he also appears regularly at major opera houses and with leading orchestras worldwide.
Káli was included among the conductors of Festival Academy Budapest 2026, where he will lead one of seven Hungarian orchestras at a weekend marathon of violin concerts with Barnabás Kelemen.
In the 2025/26 season, Káli conducts Kurtág's opera Fin de partie at Theater Basel and will perform with Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest.
A recording of Bartók's complete piano concertos with Tomáš Vrána and the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava was released on the Supraphon label, and Gramophone magazine praised it as works 'smartly balanced under conductor Gábor Káli's watch'.
In the 2024/25 season, Káli made his debut with Queensland Symphony Orchestra (soloist Daniel Lozakovich), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NDR RadioPhilharmonie.
Káli conducts an opera at the Budapest Operaház in a series of performances from September to October 2026.
