Born in
Essen, Gabriel studied Catholic church music at the , organ with
Sieglinde Ahrens and
Josef Bucher. From 1983 to 1986 he served as
cantor at the in
Recklinghausen. He worked freelance from 1987 to 1988 for the
West German Radio and the in Recklinghausen. From 1989 to 1991 he was district cantor at
St. Martin, Idstein, where he founded a youth choir called Martinis in 1988. From 1992 to 1997 he was regional cantor in
Saarbrücken. Since 1998, he has been cantor for the Regional Institute of Sacred Music in the
Diocese of Mainz with a focus on (NGL, New sacred song), for the deaneries
Offenbach,
Rodgau and
Seligenstadt, at the church ). Gabriel gives many concerts as an organist, harpsichordist and pianist, particularly as a member of the
Thomas Gabriel Trio, whose artistic focus is on jazz arrangements of the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach. As a composer, Gabriel tries to combine traditional church music with elements from jazz and pop. He composed in 2005
Missa mundi (
Mass of the world) for the final
mass of the
World Youth Day in Cologne on 21 August 2005, representing five continents in style and instrumentation: a European influenced by the style of Bach, a South American with guitars and
pan flutes, an Asian with
sitar, an African with drums, and an Australian with
didgeridoos. It was premiered by a project choir from the
Würzburg Cathedral, conducted by
Martin Berger, with Gabriel at the keyboard. He participated in the project (Mass of the Diocese of Mainz), a collaboration of six regional cantors to create a mass in German for choir, a high voice (children's choir or soprano) and organ.
Dan Zerfaß composed , Nicolo Sokoli , Thomas Gabriel ,
Andreas Boltz , Ralf Stiewe , and Ruben J. Sturm . == Compositions ==