Gabriel Costache is a musician, educator, arts administrator and entrepreneur based in Denver, CO. He has been playing percussion and piano for the past 20 years, and teaching for 10 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), Kyle Zerna (New York Philharmonic), and John Riley, and Samir Chatterjee.
He was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Scholarship as well as the Sabian/Robert Zildjian Memorial Scholarship. During his time at MSM, he was the Principal Percussionist of the MSM Philharmonia and was the 1st place Winner of the Lillian Fuchs Memorial Chamber Music Competition.
While at the Manhattan School of Music, 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 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. Gabriel has traveled all around the world to learn local hand drumming cultures, including locations such as Bali, Qatar, Peru, and Ireland, among others. This will continue to be a life-long passion of his.
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.
Equally passionate about work in the arts behind the scenes, Gabriel also holds a Master's degree in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Oklahoma. Gabriel has worked at Baboro International Arts Festival for Children doing outreach, as well as doing marketing, fundraising, and community engagement work at other arts organizations such as the Colorado Ballet, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, Upbeat Colorado and Dance Motion Marketing.
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 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. Prior to Interlochen, Gabriel attended the Denver School of the Arts where he won 1st place in the concerto competition. There, he worked under Dave Hammond and Lizzie van Wirt.