Gabriel Costache is a musician and educator based in Denver, CO. They have been playing percussion and piano for the past 20 years, and teaching for 10 years.
Gabriel received their Bachelor's degree in 2022 from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in NYC, studying Classical Percussion, where they worked under Christopher Lamb (New York Philharmonic), She-e Wu (international soloist), Duncan Patton (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Kyle Zerna (New York Philharmonic), and John Riley.
They were awarded the Manhattan School of Music Scholarship as well as the Sabian/Robert Zildjian Memorial Scholarship. During their time at MSM, they were the Principal Percussionist of the MSM Philharmonia and was the 1st place Winner of the Lillian Fuchs Memorial Chamber Music Competition.
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Gabriel is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship, and spent the Summer 2025 working at Baboro International Arts Festival for Children doing outreach and community engagement.
While at the Manhattan School of Music, Gabriel became interested in the hand drums of various world music cultures. They began studying tabla and Hindustani music intensely with Pandit Samir Chatterjee, and joined the Afro-Cuban band led by Bobby Sanabria at MSM playing congas, bongos, and guiro. They 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 a life-long passion of theirs.
After graduating from MSM, Gabriel studied conducting at the Juilliard Extension Program with Mark Shapiro. Following that, they spent three months studying abroad in the Netherlands at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA), where they took lessons from Arnold Marinnissen, Rachel Zhang, and Laurent Wariner. During their time at CvA, they were 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.
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Gabriel has also spent time as a Special Education teacher teaching math and reading intervention. This experience has greatly shaped the way they approach teaching music to diverse learners.
Gabriel received their high school diploma in 2018 from Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where they studied with Keith Aleo. During his time at Interlochen, they were a winner in the Classical Music category with the YoungArts organization, and was awarded 3rd place at the New York International Percussion Competition. Prior to Interlochen, Gabriel attended the Denver School of the Arts where they won 1st place in the concerto competition. There, they worked under Dave Hammond while also studying privately with Lizzie van Wirt.