About
Suite for unaccompanied snare drum mvt. IV
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1959
Currently, a Graduate Assistant to the percussion studio of Dr. Erwin Mueller at Ball State University, Gabe’s duties have have included teaching applied lessons, directing traditional marimba/percussion ensemble, world percussion ensemble, and teaching percussion methods courses to non-percussionist music education majors. He balances these responsibilities with
dissertation research for the Doctor of Arts degree, to be completed in Spring of 2012. As an active performer in BSU marimba ensemble, wind ensemble, large and small jazz ensembles, orchestras, and recitals—he is expanding his diverse musical experience with the wonderful leaders here at Ball State.
After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado in 2003, where he served as a
Graduate Assistant to the percussion studio and jazz studies department—directing jazz
ensembles and percussion ensembles, assisting with the Greeley Jazz festival production. At
UNC, Gabe was an active performer with the Greeley Philharmonic and various jazz ensembles
were he received two outstanding performance awards (by recorded submission) from the famed music periodical DOWNBEAT. Gabe later accepted teaching positions at Western State College in Gunnison, CO and Adams State in Alamosa.
Raised in Indiana, he received a multi-cultural education and enjoyed reading and music early in childhood. Gabe picked up sticks at age 12 and began studying seriously. As an active performer all through high school, he built a strong foundation that would allow him to continue his studies with the great teacher and percussionist Erwin Mueller at Ball University in Muncie, Indiana. Dr. Mueller, who studied with Ed Metzenger of the the Chicago Symphony, would expose Gabe to all the doors of possibility that music has for the percussionist. Focusing on the Marimba as a solo and ensemble instrument, he won the 1999 university undergraduate Concerto Competition which resulted in his orchestral solo debut with Keiko Abe’s Prism Rhapsody and in 2000, a Student Exchange with Mukogawa University (Osaka, Japan), and a subsequent solo marimba recital.
While earning a B.S. and B.M. at Ball State, Gabe was an active performer with many professional and school ensembles. The most notable being the Muncie Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Lab Band I, which toured Europe in the summer of 2000 (Vienne, Montreux, & North Sea Jazz Festivals). He is a former recipient of the Elizabeth E. Meloy and Betty Boggs scholarships, a member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Society, and an active member in Percussive Arts Society.
