Composing music that both embraces and challenges western classical traditions, Gabriel Prokofiev has emerged as a significant voice in new approaches to classical music at the beginning of the 21st century. After completing his musical studies at Birmingham and York Universities, and dissatisfied with the seemingly insular world of contemporary classical music, he developed a parallel music career as a dance, grime, electro and hip-hop producer. This background in dance music combined with his classical roots gives his music a unique and truly contemporary sound. 

Gabriel has built up a large body of orchestral and chamber works and has composed seven concertos (three featuring turntables), as well as many electronic works, often combining synthesisers and samples with classical instrumentation. His works have been performed internationally by orchestras including Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig, Copenhagen Phil, Luxembourg Philharmonique, Buenos Aires Filharmonica, Porto Symphony and Real Orquesta de Sevilla. Also, he frequently collaborates with contemporary dancers and has worked with companies including Stuttgarter Ballet, Rambert Dance, Bern Ballet, Shobana Jeyasingh, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alexander Whitley Dance and Gandini Juggling. In 2019, his first full-length opera Elizabetta was premiered by Regensburg Opera in Bavaria. 

Gabriel is also an events curator, producer and founder of the Nonclassical record label and club night, home to a host of artists who defy conventions. Through Nonclassical, he has been one of the leading proponents of presenting classical music in non-traditional venues; and he regularly performs in East London nightclubs, warehouses and electronic music festivals, often DJing and doing live remixes of the works just performed. 

Gabriel studied electroacoustic composition under Jonty Harrison in Birmingham, and a Masters in composition with Ambrose Field & Roger Marsh. He is published by both Faber Music and Mute Song, and resides in Hackney, London, with his wife and their three young children.

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Violin Concerto

‘…the sheer dislocating bitterness of the writing, both for Daniel Hope, the superb soloist, and for the orchestra…it’s the best thing Gabriel Prokofiev has written.’
-The Times, ★★★★ (Richard Morrison), 2014

‘the programme for this work is indeed specific, including savagery, shell-shock, and sardonic imperial marches: the rationale is pure Shostakovich, though more literal. Daniel Hope, the instigator of this work, played its stratospherically high solo part with flawless accuracy.
-The Independent, ★★★★

“One work, however, stood apart. Daniel Hope was the soloist in the world premiere of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 1 “1914” – an ambitious depiction of Europe’s descent into war. It contained some startling effects. The BIPO sounded good in it, and Hope impressed by playing atrociously difficult music from memory.”
-The Guardian, ★★★★ (Tim Ashley) 2014

‘it created an extraordinary atmosphere, at once sombre, tender and surreal’
-The Daily Telegraph, ★★★★ 2014

‘The versatile musician [Gabriel] takes an interesting path in his concert, which is more of a symphonic poem with solo violin. It is a musical diary that illuminates the events of 1914 from different perspectives and transforms them into fascinating moods. The solo violin (perfect for Charlie Siem) is integrated into the orchestra sound and is part of the multi-layered sound painting. Seven drummers plus timpani perform essential colour and rhythmic tasks, and winds and strings are challenged with unusual playing techniques.’
-Saarbrücken newspaper, 2018

Concerto for Trumpet, Percussion, Turntables & Orchestra

‘The work also contains one of the finest scores composed for trumpet for a long time ( a boon for trumpeters who do not have that much ) , and (soloist) Mary Bedat is dazzling.’
Nouvel Observateur, Nathalie Krafft, 2014

Cello Concerto

‘Only the merits of the work itself can explain the rapturous applause it received. Although a little more conservative in style than some of Gabriel’s other recent music, the Concerto presented here was an ideal introduction for Russian audiences to his musical world. It showed him to be a composer with a distinctive vision, one who has no intention of following in the steps of any of his predecessors, least of all his grandfathers.’
Tempo, (David Dixon) 2013

Concerto for Bass Drum & Orchestra

‘If you think you have an idea of what a concerto for bass drum and orchestra might sound like, just know you are completely wrong and you don’t. Prokofiev brilliantly saw past everything on the surface and found the inner life of the instrument. We heard it moan, sing, wail, reverberate, clink, clank, and everything in-between.’
Chicago Classical Music (Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot), 2012

Concerto for Turntables & Orchestra No.1

‘… the real surprise here was the realisation that what was on his discs was also in the hall and that the funky interplay between the two was like flicking a time-switch between the 20th and 21st centuries. The speed-slurring of flute samples in the meditative fourth movement emerged like a cosmic message from Olivier Messiaen and there was even a cadenza for the main man…’
The Independent (Edward Seckerson), 2011