Gabriel Ostafew

Gabriel Ostafew's passion for music began very early in life. Starting with piano lessons at age five, Gabriel moved on to take up Alto, Tenor, and Baritone Sax, Oboe, Guitar, and Bass in various ensembles throughout his teens. His involvement in many district honor bands, jazz bands, and rock groups allowed him to expand his horizons as a musician. At the age of only fifteen, Gabriel was the only Oboe player in his district to be accepted to play with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for a one-time Millennium concert in 2000. After high school, Gabriel went on to study Digital Audio/Recording Arts at the Art Institute of Vancouver. Upon graduation, he spent the next two years in a successful band playing guitar and singing back up vocals, as well as recording and producing other bands. After realizing that composing was his true calling, Gabriel set forth to write as much as he could. His ability to write comfortably in many different styles of music gave him an advantage over his various projects to which he would go on to work. Seeking to further his education, Gabriel went on to pursue a degree in music at College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California, where he studied Jazz and Classical with a major in Guitar and Bass performance. On top of that, he also studied Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Some of Gabriel's credits include scores for the city of Vancouver, Equilibrium Circus, the Government of Canada, Nisga First Nations, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Department of Defense, Dunbar Haunted House, the Leo Awards, and a documentary series called Bots Without Borders, shot in South East Asia. Gabriel seeks to inspire others and continue his life long journey of learning to expand and further immerse himself in his biggest passion, music: music that speaks the words which cannot be spoken, music that evokes emotion in those who experience it, but most of all, music that expresses the creativity and love, in all forms, of the world in which we live.