FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (12/04)
Contact: Hurley School of Music, 318-869-5235, or Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

World Premiere of Centenary Professor Todd Gabriel's Composition is Jan. 24 in New York City

	Dr. Todd Gabriel

SHREVEPORT, LA — The world premiere of Dreams, Memories, and Musical Reactions by Centenary professor Todd Gabriel, D.M.A., will be presented by New York City’s Mannes College of Music on Jan. 24, 2005. The concert will be at the Mannes Concert Hall on West 85th Street.

The work, for trombone and piano, will be performed by trombonist Haim Avitsur, on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Extension Division. Mr. Avitsur has recently been named to the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia, where he will serve as principal trombone of the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra. He is an internationally known soloist who has premiered more than 50 new works for his instrument in numerous recitals, including a debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.

Dr. Gabriel’s 2004 composition, written for Avitsur, is a tribute to composer/violist Paul Hindemith, whose quote, “dreams, memories, and musical reactions are all made up of the same stuff” inspired this one-movement piece.

Currently assistant professor of composition and theory for the Hurley School of Music at Centenary College of Louisiana, Dr. Gabriel is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City. Dr. Gabriel also holds a Masters of Music degree from Louisiana State University and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona. His composition and theory teachers include David Diamond, Lester Trimble, Daniel Asia and George Tsontakis.

Dr. Gabriel’s music has been performed throughout the United States and in Australia by such internationally managed artists as the Fry Street Quartet, Hong-mei Xaio, Haim Avitsur and the Queensland Philharmonic. Radio broadcasts of various works by him have been heard on the Australian Broadcast Corporations national broadcasts and in the United States on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. As a professional violist, Dr. Gabriel has been a tenured-member of the Queensland Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony and the Alabama Symphony Orchestras.

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