Gabriel Rice

Gabriel Langfur Rice is bass trombonist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Vermont Symphony Orchestras and an Associate Artist with the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass. His diverse performing career has taken him to virtually all of the professional orchestras and theaters in New England, the Naples (FL) Philharmonic and Alabama and Spokane (WA) Symphonies, and on tours with the Boston Symphony and Pops, Burning River Brass, Linda Ronstadt, and noted contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

Mr. Rice has appeared as a soloist with the U.S. Army Orchestra at the American (formerly Eastern) Trombone Workshop, the University of Rhode Island Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Vermont Symphony under the direction of Jaime Laredo. He was a featured soloist and guest faculty for the twentieth annual Festival of the Association of Brazilian Trombonists, and has given solo recitals and masterclasses at the Boston University College of Fine Arts and Tanglewood Institute, the American Trombone Workshop, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Delaware, Tennessee Tech University, the University of Rhode Island, Brandeis University, King’s Chapel Boston, and Trinity Episcopal Church in Concord, Massachusetts. He was a member of the Orion Trombone Quartet, First Prize winners at the 1989 Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California. Along with two of his Oberlin classmates, he is a member of the Premru Quartet, a project to further the legacy of their teacher, trombonist and composer Raymond Premru, through performance and education.

In an ongoing effort to expand the bass trombone repertoire, Mr. Rice has recently been involved in commissions and premieres of new works from Norman Bolter, John Stevens, Kenneth Fuchs, James Stephenson, Jeremy Howard Beck, and Eddie Bass, and he will perform the US premiere of Gregory Fritze’s Continental Concerto with the Boston University Wind Ensemble in February 2018. As a student, he commissioned Raymond Premru’s That Time of Year for bass trombone and marimba, and played it on the Dame Myra Hess Series at the Chicago Public Library, a performance broadcast on National Public Radio. In May 2005 he premiered Aaron Berkowitz’ Concerto for Bass Trombone and Ensemble with Alarm Will Sound under the direction of Alan Pierson.

Mr. Rice is featured on a recent recording with the Thompson Brass Project, led by renowned trumpeter James Thompson of the Eastman School of Music. He has also performed on recordings with the Boston, Albany and Vermont Symphonies, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, retired Boston Symphony Principal Trombonist Ronald Barron, Norman Bolter’s Frequency Band, the Omar Thomas Large Ensemble, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol’s Whatsnext with Dave Liebman and Anat Cohen, and the Indigo Invention Group.

A sought after teacher, Mr. Rice is a member of the music faculties of the Boston University College of Fine Arts, the Kinhaven Music School, and Wellesley College, and has served on the faculties of the Longy School of Music, the University of Rhode Island, and Brown University, as well as the summer festival faculties of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, and Boston Youth Symphonies.

In addition to a busy performing and teaching career, Mr. Rice is Managing Director of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston. He holds a Masters Degree in Trombone Performance from New England Conservatory, as well as Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) and Bachelor of Music Degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory. His teachers have included Raymond Premru, Norman Bolter, Per Brevig, Matthew Guilford and Charles Vernon. Gabriel Langfur Rice is an S. E. Shires Artist.