Drum, Percussion, Piano
Gabriel Costache is a percussionist and educator based in Denver, CO. He has been studying and playing percussion for the past twenty years. Gabriel received his Bachelor's degree in 2022 from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in NYC, studying Classical Percussion, where he worked under Christopher Lamb (New York Philharmonic), She-e Wu (international soloist), Duncan Patton (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), and Kyle Zerna (New York Philharmonic). He was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Scholarship and the Sabian/Robert Zildjian Memorial Scholarship. During his time at MSM, he was the Principal Percussion of the MSM Philharmonia and was the 1st place Winner of the Lillian Fuchs Memorial Chamber Music Competition.
While at MSM, Gabriel became interested in the hand drums of various world music cultures. He began studying tabla and Hindustani music intensely with Pandit Samir Chatterjee, and he joined the Afro-Cuban band led by Bobby Sanabria at MSM, playing congas, bongos, and guiro. He also pursued self-study in other instruments such as tamburello, zarb/tombak, doumbek, riq, pandeiro, kanjira, tar, cajon, and bodhran. This will continue to be his life-long passion.
After graduating from MSM, Gabriel studied conducting at the Juilliard Extension Program with Mark Shapiro. Following that, he spent three months studying abroad in the Netherlands at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA), where he took lessons from Arnold Marinnissen, Rachel Zhang, and Laurent Wariner. During his time at CvA, he was a first-round finalist in the IPEA International Percussion Competition in Shanghai, China, which concluded a lengthy process of preparing over two hours of solo percussion music to perform at the competition.
Gabriel has performed at many summer music festivals, including the National Orchestral Institute, MSM VIrtual Percussion Summit, Eastern Music Festival, Northwestern Percussion Symposium, Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp, and the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar.
Gabriel received his high school diploma in 2018 from Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where he studied with Keith Aleo. During his time at Interlochen, he was a winner in the Classical Music category with the YoungArts organization and was awarded 3rd place at the New York International Percussion Competition. Before Interlochen, Gabriel attended the Denver School of the Arts, where he won 1st place in the concerto competition. He also worked under Dave Hammond while studying privately with Lizzie van Wirt.