“Adventurous, but always melodic…Terracciano plays with Joe Venuti’s grace and Zbigniew Seifert’s swagger.” – Ian Patterson, AllAboutJazz.com (August 9, 2018)
A native of Portland, Maine, Grammy nominated violinist Gabriel Terracciano has been playing the violin since the age of three. After eight years of strictly classical training, he discovered the jazz violin playing of Joe Venuti, Stuff Smith, and, later on, Zbigniew Seifert, who all changed his musical life (and life in general!) forever. Since then, Gabe has developed into a versatile multi-instrumentalist and a musician who has been recognized for playing the violin “in a way that’s unlike anyone else” (Sam Pfeifle, Portland Phoenix), while “proving himself as an improviser, never overplaying or imitating his predecessors on his instrument” (iTunes official album review for Crunch Time with Ron McClure).
As an improvising string player, Gabe has delved into the fields of modern jazz, Gypsy and hot jazz, Middle Eastern, electronic, pop, bluegrass, and Latin styles, just to name a few! He has played for many years throughout the United States as both a leader and sideman, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, SFJazz, The Ford (LA), Detroit Symphony Hall, Blues Alley (DC), The Jazz Kitchen (IN), and many others. He also spent several months during 2014 and 2015 in Ghana, where he played and toured extensively with the Ghanaian National Symphony Orchestra.
Gabe is First Violinist of the two time Grammy-award winning Turtle Island String Quartet, and has toured and recorded with them throughout the United States alongside other jazz luminaries including Cyrus Chestnut and Terence Blanchard. Along with leading his own bands, he is also currently a member of several New York-based groups including The Avalon Jazz Band, Arthur Vint and Associates, The Hot Toddies, The Harmolodic String Band, Habina Habina, and Wet Electric. He has performed at festivals including the Newport Jazz Festival, Telluride Jazz Festival, Aspen Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and the Freshgrass Festival.
Gabe has been the recipient of multiple honors throughout his career. Most recently, he was nominated for a 2021 Grammy award as a part of Terence Blanchard’s album “Absence”, featuring the Turtle Island Quartet. He was awarded First Prize in the 2018 Freshgrass Festival Fiddle Contest, and Third Prize in the 2018 Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition (Krakow, Poland). He is the recipient of a 2018 Downbeat Award for Pop/Rock Soloist at the Graduate School Level, and the recipient of the 2018 Barney Josephson Award from NYU for Outstanding Jazz Performance. He was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at UCLA in February 2016, and was also selected to participate in the 2015 and 2014 Savannah Music Festival’s Acoustic Music Seminar as one of only sixteen young musicians worldwide to participate.
Along with his performing career, Gabe is also a committed educator and composer. He was an adjunct instructor in violin and guitar at NYU from 2016-2018, and has taught privately and in both large and small group settings for many years. He has worked for educational organizations including Tufts Community Music, Maine Jazz Camp, and The geniusHive School (Accra, Ghana). He also teaches a private studio out of his home in Harlem.
Gabe’s recording debut was with legendary bassist Ron McClure on two albums for Steeplechase Records (Crunch Time in 2012, and Ready or Not in 2013), and with acclaimed pianist Samuel Ascher-Weiss (Shnabubula) for the album Americana Dawn: Civilized Folk (2013). Since then, he has been featured on multiple recordings spanning the stylistic spectrum, a full list of which can be found in the discography page on this website. He has two albums released as a leader – In Flight (2020) and Three Part Invention (2021), both available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.
Gabe has a Master’s Degree in Jazz Performance from the NYU Steinhardt School, and undergraduate degrees from both Tufts University and The New England Conservatory of Music. During his studies, he worked with teachers including John Scofield, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Ari Hoenig, Mat Maneri, Tony Moreno, Jason Moran, Jerry Bergonzi, John McNeil, Brad Shepik, and Frank Carlberg.