Gabriella
PianoGuitar
About Gabriella
Gabriella is a musician, composer, and lyricist who loves teaching students of all ages and abilities. She started studying classical piano at age five and never stopped, adding guitar and vocals into the mix along the way. She earned her Master's degree in Music Composition: Screen-Scoring at NYU and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Music Therapy from the University of Miami. She has taught piano lessons and a wide range of instrument and ensemble classes at community music schools over the past decade.
Gabriella brings a cheerful spirit and solid musical foundations into every lesson, striving to help students feel confident, successful, independent, and inspired at their instrument. She teaches essential practice tools and techniques, tracking progress and setting goals along the way, while opening the door to music as an outlet for self-expression and connecting with others. She hopes that music can become a rewarding and long term part of her students' lives and is honored to continue in the traditions of the teachers she learned from, while infusing her own musicality and strengths as an instructor. A versatile player, she loves drawing upon the classical repertoire, yet equally enjoys teaching popular music, accompanying, improvising, and arranging.
Gabriella has performed at festivals, venues, and events in Los Angeles (BroadStage, Aratani Theatre, Hollywood Fringe Festival), Chicago (Sleeping Village, Red Bull Music Presents Xicago, the Neo-Futurists Theater, iO Chicago), New York (The Duplex, The Center), and Miami (Miami Music Festival). Her songs and scores have been heard at the Vancouver International Film Festival, L.A. Shorts Film Festival, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, Lisboa Indie Film Festival, El Encuentro: The Latino Film Experience, All the Moves International Film Festival, and more.
Q&A with Gabriella
Which musician would you like to play with?
Chappell Roan
Which musician has influenced you the most?
Chopin
What can you teach me better on your instrument than any other teacher?
I'm great at teaching pop/rock/contemporary music to beginners using really simplified chord shapes and progressions.
How did you learn to play your instrument?
I started taking piano lessons at age 5 (I asked my parents for lessons when I was 4!) and continued all throughout my life including college; I majored in Piano Performance at the University of Miami.
What equipment do you play on today?
I play a Yamaha Clavinova digital piano that I bought 10 years ago and have moved with me from Florida, to Chicago, to New York, to L.A. It's perfect. Guitar-wise, I have an acoustic Seagull guitar and a Stratocaster.
Which personal trait helped you the most while practicing?
Being a very strong sight-reader!
What does your instrument have that others don't?
A wide octave range, plus It's easier to explore harmony and melody at the same time on keyboard instruments than most others.
How do you handle children?
I am very playful, cheerful, and encouraging with kids.
What has been your greatest experience as a musician so far?
Performing the Overture from West Side Story Overture with the Dream Orchestra in Santa Monica this summer was extremely fun and rewarding. I've also had a few recent recording sessions of my film music compositions that were really special- the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra last fall as part of a composer program at the Vancouver Film Festival, and a wind quintet called Fiveplay whom I worked with during my grad program (they were just such a delight). Lastly, some highlights of my time in Chicago include writing the music and co-writing the lyrics for a show called Lucky: A Musical, which won several awards at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, as well as my work with PlayMakers Laboratory writing and producing very niche and off-the-wall music for children's theater.
What was the biggest stage you played on?
I think it was Red Bull Music Festival Chicago, back in 2018, where I was on keys with ¡ESSO! Afrojam Funkbeat. Or playing with the Eisner Intergenerational Orchestra at the Aratani Theatre in L.A.
Which record would you take with you to the desert island?
Whichever Prince anthology is the densest.
Besides music, what else is important in your life?
Family, friends, and dogs!
Music style(s)
ClassicalPopRockCountryR&B
Level(s) Comfortable Teaching
Beginner to Advanced
What languages can you teach in?
English
Videos
Other Music-related work / goals
Gabriella is a composer, pianist, and lyricist newly based in West L.A. As a lifelong musician and perhaps an overly-enthusiastic consumer of film and television, she is thrilled to bring her music into these mediums to help tell the story. She started studying classical piano at age five and never stopped, adding guitar and vocals into the mix along the way. She loves writing for orchestral and acoustic instrumentation, especially in tandem with more contemporary and experimental production approaches.
Accolades
Gabriella's recent film score highlights include "Fern" (New Young Filmmakers Los Angeles, Chicago Cinema Femme), "Dear Yeda" (Lisboa Indie Film Festival, others), "Jalopy" (L.A. Shorts Fest, others), and "Sprout" (Portland Festival of Cinema, others). She was selected for the Composer Filmmaker Accelerator program at the Vancouver International Film Festival (2023), where she collaborated with director Ana Valina and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on "Cabin Games." She has been a mentee in the Society of Composers and Lyricists (2022-23) and participated in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop at Columbia University (2023). Influenced by six years in the Chicago comedy scene (The Second City, iO Chicago) and children's theater (PlayMakers Laboratory), Gabriella co-wrote the award-winning musical "Lucky." She holds a Masters in Music Composition: Screen-Scoring from NYU and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami. Upcoming projects include scores for "The Feast of Magical Small Things," the video game "Parts of the Elephant," and "Ingénue" at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2024.
Personal Interests
Travel, cooking, my tennis league, film, comedy, news, and listening to podcasts at every waking moment.