Quick Facts
Biography
Arnald Gabriel (Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel) was the Commander and Conductor from the United States Air Force Band, United States Air Force Symphony Orchestra, and Singing Sergeants from 1964 to 1985. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the United States Air Force Band.
In World War II, he served as a combat machine gunner with the United States Army's famed 29th Infantry Division in Europe . He landed with the 29th on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and for his service on and after D-Day in Europe he received two Bronze Star medals, the Combat Infantry Badge, and the French Croix de Guerre.
After leaving the Army, Arnald Gabriel enrolled in Ithaca College in 1946. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Music Education in the Ithaca College.
In February 1985, Arnald Gabriel retired from the Air ForceUnited States Air Force Band. In 1990, he was named the first Conductor Emeritus of the United States Air Force Band at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.
Colonel Gabriel is the first Conductor Emeritus was named the Band's first conductor emeritus and Professor Emeritus of George Mason University.
Honors
Gabriel’s professional honors include the very first Citation of Excellence awarded by the National Band Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia’s New Millennium Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also a recipient of the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music Medal.
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. He is also a Past President of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. In 2008, the US Air Force Band dedicated the Arnald D. Gabriel Hall in his honor.
Career
He has conducted hundreds of major orchestras and bands, including Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Puerto Rico, and Tatui São Paulo (Brazil) symphony orchestras, the Carabiniere Band and the Air Force Band (Italy), the Band of the Royal Netherlands Marines, the Staff Music Corps (Bonn, Germany), the National Band of the Canadian Forces (Ottawa), the National Intercollegiate Band, the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Gamagori Band and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (Japan).