ABOUT
Saxophonist and composer Gabriel Mininberg uses world rhythms and film-inspired harmonies to create at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and multimedia performance. Gabriel is a 2025 Creative Capital Award finalist and has performed his original music at the Kennedy Center. As a composer, he has been commissioned by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) the Bruce Museum, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Playground Ensemble, and has premiered original chamber, multimedia, and jazz works at the Bruce Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and the Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center. He has been awarded artist residencies at the Djerassi Foundation, Banff Centre for the Arts, the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Jentel Foundation, Tongue River, and the Creative Center of Stodvarfjordur. His jazz quintet, DARUMA, has toured the US several times, won the 2024 South Arts Jazz Road touring grant, and have appeared on NPR radio and PBS & CBS TV. Gabriel has served as a Teaching Artist at the Yale School of Music and has given masterclasses at universities around the country.
As a musicologist, he was awarded the Lewis P. Curtis and the Charles H. Siegel fellowships for his original field research on Sinhalese popular dance music in Sri Lanka. He was later invited by leading scholars in the field to join the founding delegation of the Centre for the Study of Sri Lankan Performing Arts at the City University of New York.
Gabriel has served a Teaching Artist at the Yale School of Music, ran the Jazz Festival at Yale for three years (featuring Grammy-winning musicians), designed the Michael Brecker International Saxophone Competition (Red Sea Jazz Festival 2019), and has taught hundreds of students through his online studio.
Gabriel earned a dual B.A. from Yale University in Music and Astronomy. He grew up in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, and Guatemala, and speaks English, Spanish, and French.