Thomas Gabriel (composer)

Thomas Gabriel (born 25 August 1957) is a German church musician, composer and arranger.
Career.
Born in Essen, Gabriel studied Catholic church music at the , organ with Sieglinde Ahrens and Josef Bucher. From 1983 to 1986 he served as cantor at the in Recklinghausen. He worked freelance from 1987 to 1988 for the West German Radio and the in Recklinghausen. From 1989 to 1991 he was district cantor at St. Martin, Idstein, where he founded a youth choir called "Martinis" in 1988. From 1992 to 1997 he was regional cantor in Saarbrücken. Since 1998, he has been cantor for the Regional Institute of Sacred Music in the Diocese of Mainz with a focus on "" (New sacred song), for the deaneries Offenbach, Rodgau and Seligenstadt, at the church ).
Gabriel gives many concerts as an organist, harpsichordist and pianist, particularly as a member of the "Thomas Gabriel Trio", whose artistic focus is on jazz arrangements of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
As a composer, Gabriel tries to combine traditional church music with elements from jazz and pop. He composed in 2005 "Missa mundi" (Mass of the world) for the final mass of the World Youth Day in Cologne on 21 August 2005, representing five continents in style and instrumentation: a European ' influenced by the style of Bach, a South American ' with guitars and pan flutes, an Asian ' with sitar, an African ' with drums, and an Australian ' with didgeridoos. It was premièred by a project choir from the Würzburg Cathedral, conducted by Martin Berger, with Gabriel at the keyboard. He participated in the project ' (Mass of the Diocese of Mainz), a collaboration of six regional cantors to create a mass in German for choir, a high voice (children's choir or soprano) and organ. Dan Zerfaß composed ', Nicolo Sokoli ', Thomas Gabriel ', Andreas Boltz ', Ralf Stiewe ', Ruben J. Sturm '.