Colonel Gabriel
Conductor Emeritus, The United States Air Force Band
Professor Emeritus, George Mason University
Col. Arnald D. Gabriel retired from the United States Air Force in 1985 following a
distinguished 36 year military career, at which time he was awarded an unprecedented
third Legion of Merit for his service to the United States Air Force and to music education
throughout the country. He served as Commander/Conductor of the internationally
renowned U.S. Air Force Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants from 1964
to 1985. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the USAF Band at a
special concert held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Col. Gabriel served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, from
1985 to 1995, as Conductor of the GMU Symphony Orchestra and as Chairman,
Department of Music for eight of those years. In recognition of his ten years service to the
university, he was named Professor Emeritus of Music.
A combat machine gunner with the United States Army's famed 29th Infantry Division in
Europe during WW II, Gabriel received two awards of the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat
Infantryman's Badge and the French Croix de Guerre.
Following his separation from the Army in 1946, Gabriel enrolled in Ithaca College, where
he earned both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Music Education. In 1989, his
alma mater conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Music degree and in 1997, he was
further honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also listed in the International
Who Ôs Who in Music, 7th edition.
Col. Gabriel's professional honors include the very first Citation of Excellence awarded by
the National Band Association, the Mid-West National Band and Orchestra Clinic's Gold
Medal of Honor and its Distinguished Service to Music Award, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's
New Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award and its rarely presented National Citation for
"significant contributions to music in America", Kappa Kappa Psi's Distinguished Service
to Music Award, Phi Beta Mu's Outstanding Contribution to Bands Award, and the St.
Cecilia Award from the University of Notre Dame. Col. Gabriel was inducted into the
National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors, becoming the
youngest person ever to have received this honor, and was an inaugural inductee to the
Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame of Cortland High School in Cortland, New York. He is
also a Past President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association.
Col. Gabriel has performed in all 50 of the United States and in 49 countries around the
world. In addition to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, among the hundreds of major
orchestras and bands he has conducted are the Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, San Antonio,
Memphis, Florida, Glendale (California), Green Bay (Wisconsin), York and Williamsport
(Pennsylvania), Fairfax (Virginia), Puerto Rico, and Tatui Sao Paulo (Brazil), symphony
orchestras, the Carabiniere Band and the Air Force Band (Italy), the Band of the Royal
Netherlands Marines, the Royal Hellenic Band (Greece), the Staff Music Corps (Bonn,
Germany), the National Band of the Canadian Forces (Ottawa), The Dallas Wind
Symphony, the Gamagori Band and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (Japan).
Col. Gabriel was named Music Director Emeritus of the McLean (VA) Orchestra for his
outstanding leadership from 1986 to 2002.
Col. Gabriel continues to appear as clinician at major state, regional, and university music
festivals and guest conducts outstanding school, college, municipal, and military bands as
well as orchestras around the world.
Colonel Gabriel is:
Resident Conductor
Fairfax Wind Symphony
Conductor Laureate
Midwestern Music Camp
