Gabriel Rice

In addition to his work with the HSO, Gabriel Rice is bass trombonist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Vermont Symphony Orchestras and and serves on the faculties of Boston University and the Kinhaven Music School. His diverse performing career has included the Boston Symphony, Boston Ballet Orchestra, and most of the professional orchestras in New England; the Louisiana Philharmonic, Alabama Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Spokane Symphony; and on tours with the Boston Pops, Burning River Brass, Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, Linda Ronstadt, and contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

As a recitalist, Mr. Rice is especially interested in new music and has been involved in commissions from composers such as John Stevens, Raymond Premru, Norman Bolter, Jeremy Howard Beck, and Kenneth Fuchs, and gave the North American premiere of Gregory Fritze’s Continental Concerto in February 2018 with the Boston University Wind Ensemble. He has performed on recordings with the Boston, Albany and Vermont Symphonies, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Symphony Principal Trombonist Ronald Barron, Norman Bolter’s Frequency Band, the Omar Thomas Large Ensemble, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol’s Whatsnext?, the Indigo Invention Group, and the Thompson Brass Project led by renowned trumpeter James Thompson.

Also an advocate for fellow musicians, Mr. Rice is a steward for the part-time faculty union at Boston University and serves on the board of the Boston Musicians Association, local 9-535 of the American Federation of Musicians. In response to the pandemic, he helped to found and serves as President of the New England Musicians Resource Fund, a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term security for professional musicians in New England by providing financial assistance and critical resources as a safety net for musicians experiencing unexpected or catastrophic income loss.

Educated at the Oberlin and New England Conservatories, Mr. Rice’s teachers have included Raymond Premru, Norman Bolter, Matthew Guilford, and Per Brevig. Gabriel Rice performs on S. E. Shires trombones and Doug Elliott mouthpieces.