Born and raised in San Francisco, now based in NYC, Gabriel showcases a catalogue of original music, jazz standards, and arrangements of works by Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Cedar Walton, Keith Jarrett, and more. Gabriel honors the history of these master pianists with performances that are both soulful and hard-hitting. You’ll find him performing almost every night with NYC’s finest jazz musicians at household jazz venues.
On The Road & On Stage:
Gabriel has toured nationally with a host of internationally acclaimed musicians including CHRISTOPHER MCBRIDE (featured soloist & contributor on GRAMMY-winning Steven Feifke album), LUCAS PINO (Artistic director / Brubeck Jazz Summit), TIM GREEN (sax for Michael Bublé and GRAMMY Nominee), LANGSTON HUGHES II (Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), and ALEXANDRA RIDOUT (ARTEMIS, International Jazz Award ‘Best Soloist’ 2023).
Gabriel can be found performing with SAM DILLON (The Vanguard Orchestra, The Jimmy Heath Big Band, Mingus Big Band, The 8BitBigBand, The Steven Feifke Big Band, The Birdland Big Big…etc), ERENA TERAKUBO (Jon Faddis All-Star Big Band, Kenny Barron Quartet, Mingus Big Band…etc), APRIL VARNER (2023 Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Competition Winner), TYREEK MCDOLE (2023 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition Winner), BEN SOLOMON (Chick Corea, Wallace Roney, Aaron Parks), EMMANUEL MICHAEL (Aaron Parks, Ambrose Akinmusire), ANTHONY HERVEY (Jazz at Lincoln Center, Michael Bublé…etc) and more at a variety of top-tier jazz venues including Zinc Bar, The Django, Ornithology, Libretto Paso Robles, The Piedmont Piano Company, and more. Gabriel has also performed at CARNEGIE HALL, at the NYC French and Czech Consulates, appeared with vocalist KIERAN BROWN on LIVE TV (PIX 11 News, Channel 11, NYC), and performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
Lecturer: Gabriel tours the nation with presentations that blend musical performance with storytelling.
INVISIBLE JAZZ GIANTS: The Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman jazz quartet celebrates the timeless works of Black, Jewish, Women, and Queer luminaries whose impact on jazz and popular culture in the 2nd half of the 20th century was profound and unmistakable. Yet in order to make a living in an industry that reflected the structural racism, antisemitism, sexism, and homophobia that gripped the nation, many of these legends had to become invisible. In a discussion of the lives and in our performance of the musical works of these invisible giants in jazz, we hope to bring to the limelight a part of American history that, like its players, has struggled to be seen and heard.
THE TOPOGRAPHY OF JAZZ: REVOLUTIONS IN SOUND UP, DOWN, and ACROSS NEW YORK CITY. Originally a 5 week series (easily adaptable to create shorter programs), this program celebrates the rich history of jazz in New York City. A musical tour through time and place transports audiences to Harlem airshafts, Black and Tan Clubs, the first integrated Swing ballrooms, mob-run 52nd street clubs, Tin Pan Alley cubicles, jazz lofts, hospitals, orphanages, asylums, basements, underground Communist-jazz hangs, and more. The program also seriously investigates the impacts of New York’s “Urban Renewal” projects on primarily Black and Puerto Rican jazz musicians and their families, and dives into the topographical history of ‘Manhatta’, originally molded by the Lenape.
Teacher & Clinitian:
Gabriel runs his own private studio out of the Upper West Side, is faculty at the New York City Piano Academy, workshops high schooler combos and big bands, and tours the nation with Jazz Reach to deliver multimedia performances and masterclasses to young learners. He’s also well known for his educational videos on Barry Harris and Bill Evans on his Instagram page.
Cross-Genre Music
In addition to jazz styles, Gabriel composes in Gospel, Reggae, Hip Hop, and Latin/Afro-Cuban traditions. His singles MORNING SUN (ft. legendary Jamaican artist, Turbulence) and THE GATHERING exemplifies his cross-pollination of these genres. Gabriel is an active Musical Director, composer, producer, and performer with the Bay Area Hip Hop collective FAMILY NOT A GROUP, where his work with their founder, Afterthought, was recognized by KQED Radio as THE BEST BAY AREA MUSIC OF 2023 and showcased at SF MOMA.
Education:
Gabriel holds a Master’s Degree in Jazz Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and has taken lessons from some of the best jazz artists in the world, including Sullivan Fortner, Jon Faddis, Phil Markowitz, Marc Cary, Elio Villafranca, Ted Rosenthal, and Jeremy Manasia. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University with Phi Beta Kappa honors, the Mitchell Baker ‘90 Music Scholar Award, and the William F. Fichter Prize.