David Gabrielson serves as Director of Percussion and Assistant Director of Bands at Clovis North Educational
Center in Fresno, CA. Mr. Gabrielson is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty at California
State University, Fresno, a position he has held for 16 years and is a past faculty
member of California State University, Stanislaus. Past students of Mr. Gabrielson’s
private/college studio have enjoyed tremendous success, including winning numerous
honors and have also gone on to become teachers and professional musicians. Advocates
for new music, Mr. Gabrielson and his colleagues have commissioned many composers
for band and percussion ensembles including Beacon of Polaris (2011), Where the Mountains Meet the Sky (2013) and Passageways (2015) with other works in progress. He also conducted the world premiere of the
The Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest winner Accidental Migration (2007) with the Fresno State Percussion Ensemble and at the 2007 CMEA state convention.
Mr. Gabrielson holds a Master of Arts in Music Performance and a Bachelor of Arts
in Music Education from California State University, Fresno.
The music program at Clovis North has seen tremendous success with the marching band,
concert band, indoor percussion and percussion ensemble. Some honors include being
a featured band at the 2016 Music For All National Festival, performance at the 2016
Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Ensemble Festival, serving as the lab band for
Robert Sheldon at the 2014 CASMEC conference, serving as lab percussion ensemble at
the 2015 CASMEC conference, multiple SJVCGPR championships, several Western Band Association
championship high percussion awards and have been named Western Band Association class
or grand champions multiple times. This December the band will be the first ensemble
from the Central Valley to ever perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.
Mr. Gabrielson presented his clinic titled “If You Build It They Will Come - Using
Percussion Ensemble to Build Well-Rounded Percussionists: Why and How?” at the California
All-State Music Education Conference in February 2015.
A very active freelance musician, Mr. Gabrielson is a member of the Sacramento Choral
Society Orchestra and Music in the Mountains Summer Orchestra and keeps an active
performing and adjudicating schedule, including regularly performing with the Fresno
Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Opera, as well
as others. He has also performed with such groups/artists, including being principal
percussionist with the former Sacramento Metropolitan Orchestra, former principal
percussionist with Townsend Opera Players, Bear Valley Orchestra, Sacramento Chamber
Orchestra, Branford Marsalis, Rita Moreno, Doc Severinsen, The Magical Mystery Tour,
Cirque de la Symphonie, Edgar Meyers, Zakir Hussain, Bela Fleck, Morgan James and
Placido Domingo among others.
Mr. Gabrielson currently serves as a Vice President of the California Chapter of the
Percussive Arts Society, is a founding committee member of the PAS-CA Solo/Ensemble
Competition and co-hosts the Central CA Day of Percussion. He is also the cofounder
of the San Joaquin Valley Concert Band Invitational affiliated with the Music for
All National Festival. Mr. Gabrielson is proud to be a VIC FIRTH Artist, a REMO Artist
and a YAMAHA Performing Artist.
