Gal Faganel is a versatile award-winning cello performer, an acclaimed teacher, a recording artist, and a researcher. He has performed extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician throughout the United States and in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His performances and recordings have been praised in the press for “exceptionally sensitive interpretation,” his “powerful and beautiful tone,” and “brilliant virtuosity and youthful vigor.”

He is a winner of numerous national and international competitions including the International Cello Competition “Antonio Janigro” in Croatia, the American String Teacher’s Association Competition, and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition in the United States. Faganel has been researching, cataloging, performing, and recording music for cello by Slovenian composers. He has recorded for many labels and radio stations internationally and has commissioned new works as a cellist of the Colorado Piano Trio. Collaboration with choirs is also one of Faganel’s passions which resulted in internationally broadcast performance of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Canticle of the Sun with Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, and a recent premiere of Damijan Močnik’s Genesis, both a sort of cello concerto with choir. As a researcher Faganel has also been investigating acoustical challenges of cello-piano sonata duo, the effects of piano lid position on piano sound, nuances of pizzicato, motion sensor-based motion capture for performing musicians, pedagogical application of live spectral analysis of sound, ethics in the arts, and other engaging problems.

He has presented at many international conferences including the European String Teachers’ Association, European Piano Teachers’ Association, Music Teachers’ National Association, College Music Society, and American String Teachers’ Association. With a doctorate from the University of Southern California under the mentorship of Eleonore Schoenfeld, he was previously the principal cellist of the Phoenix Symphony. Faganel is now professor of cello at the University of Ljubljana Academy of Music and appears as a guest at institutions around the world.

His previous teaching appointments include University of Northern Colorado, University of North Texas, Scottsdale Community College, and the University of Southern California. In addition to being an innovative and devoted cello pedagogue, Faganel loves coaching chamber music, frequently trains musicians in preparation for orchestral auditions, mentors developing musicians, and leads career development workshops.