Gabriele Ferro graduated in Rome in piano and composition and in 1970 won the RAI Conducting Competition. He has conducted the Orchestre national de France, the Bamberg and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as the radio orchestras of WDR, the BBC and Radio France.

From 1987 to 1991 he was principal conductor of the Rome RAI Orchestra and from 1978 he has appeared as guest conductor at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the opera houses of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, Berlin (Deutsche Oper) and Milan (La Scala), and has conducted at major festivals. From 1979 to 1997 he was principal conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and from 1991 to 1997 general music director in Stuttgart. From 1999 to 2004 he held the same position at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and since 2014 has been general music director at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

His repertoire ranges from Baroque opera to the contemporary, and he has a number of important recordings to his credit.