Gabriel Crist
Piano
Born: 2004
Nationality: American
Instrument: Piano
Studies: Colburn Conservatory of Music (Los Angeles); Yale School of Music (from 2026)
Teachers: Fabio Bidini, Boris Berman, Wei-Yi Yang
Also active as: Composer, conductor, harpsichordist and organist
Moving Talent masterpiece: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto & Piano Sonata
About Gabriel
As a soloist, Gabriel has performed with orchestras including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Málaga. He has received awards at competitions and festivals such as PianoTexas and the Festival Internacional Piano Málaga. In 2024, he also made his debut with the American Modern Opera Company in The Comet/Poppea, reflecting his wide-ranging artistic interests and curiosity for innovative performance.
Artistic vision
For his Moving Talent Fellowship, Gabriel places the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the centre of his programme. Rather than presenting Mozart as a historical figure, he explores how Mozart's music continues to resonate with composers today.
The programme combines a Mozart piano sonata and the composer's own chamber version of one of his piano concertos with works by Jonathan Dove and Michael Nyman. At its heart is Dove's An Airmail Letter from Mozart, a work that imagines Mozart travelling through the modern world, writing letters to his wife Constanze while weaving fragments of Mozart's own music into a fresh contemporary soundscape.
By placing these works side by side, Gabriel invites audiences to discover Mozart not only as one of history's greatest composers, but also as a continuing source of inspiration for today's musical imagination.
In hir own words
"Classical music is a living tradition. Through this programme I want to explore how Mozart's voice continues to speak to composers today, creating a dialogue across centuries that feels both timeless and surprisingly contemporary."
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata (to be announced)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto in Mozart's own chamber arrangement for piano and string quartet
Michael Nyman
In Re Don Giovanni
Jonathan Dove
An Airmail Letter from Mozart
Performers
Gabriel Crist – piano
Matangi Quartet
