Gábor Horváth was born on July 10, 1975, in Budapest. As a child, he sang in the children’s choirs of Hungarian Radio and the Hungarian State Opera House. He graduated from Szent István Secondary School in 1994.

Between 1989 and 2004, he was a member of the Szent István King Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. From 1993 to 2001, he led the Youth String Orchestra of the Szent István King School of Music, and from then until the present day he has conducted the institution’s Symphony Orchestra, which was awarded the honorary title of National Youth Orchestra for three years in 2024.

He obtained a diploma in choral conducting in 1998 and in orchestral conducting in 2002 at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. He participated in masterclasses held by Yuri Simonov and Rudolf Barshai. He currently teaches choral conducting at the Academy of Music, and choral conducting and chamber music at the Szent István King Secondary School of Music.

At the 10th International János Ferencsik Conducting Competition organized by Hungarian Television in 2002, he won second prize as well as the audience special prize.

In 2004, at the request of Yuri Simonov, the Hungarian State Opera House employed him as a musical assistant for Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. From the spring of 2008 onward, he has conducted one opera production every year at the Zugló Szent István Music House, and on several occasions at the Palace of Arts (Bizet: Carmen; Puccini: Madama Butterfly).

In December 2012, he conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Palace of Arts in Budapest, replacing the ill Zoltán Kocsis. He has held choral conducting courses for Erasmus students in Uppsala, Sweden, in Miercurea Ciuc, and was also a guest lecturer at Ilona Meskó’s conducting course.

From 2010 to 2022, he served as artistic director and principal conductor of the Gödöllő Symphony Orchestra. He maintains an ongoing relationship with the Szent István musical workshop and is deputy conductor of the Szent István Philharmonic Orchestra.