Biography - 2012
Drake Mabry
Website: www.myspace.com/drakemabry
Email: mabry22@gmail.com
Drake Mabry made his home in France from 1988 to 2010 and worked as a performer, composer, teacher and director. From 1999 to 2006 he was director of the French government subsidized CEFEDEM School of Music in Poitiers, France. He has been a member of the French Ministry of Culture’s commission on higher education in Europe and is currently a member of the French Ministry of Culture's commission of experts. He now divides his time between San Diego, Istanbul and Paris.
His musical studies were with Harold Gomberg (oboe) at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music where he received his Bachelors degree in 1971. He holds a Masters of Music degree in composition from Rice University and a Doctorate in composition from the University of California in San Diego. His principal composition teachers were Will Ogdon, Paul Cooper, Krysztof Penderecki, and John Cage.
In 1971 he began his musical career as principal oboe with orchestras in the United States, Canada, and England. In 1975 he pursued his interests in the jazz world playing saxophone, flute and clarinet in the Aspen Music Festival Big Band and in his own quintet. Since 1978 he has concentrated on composition and improvisation.
Drake Mabry has written over 100 works including 50 commissions (7 Commandes de l'Etat) for soloists, ensembles, and orchestras. He has received numerous performances of his music in the United States, Israel, Asia, and Europe. He is regularly invited as composer in residence and received the "Bourse de la Création 1996" from the Conseil Général des Vosges.
His music is published by Editions Musicales Européenes, Editions Henry Lemoine, Editions Transatlantiques, Shawnee Press and Drake Mabry Publishing. His music is recorded on the compact disc labels: Musique Française d'Aujourd'hui Radio France, Neuma, l'Atout Vosgien, Hopi, and Berlioz Historic Brass.
He has taught at Rice University, and Dartmouth College in the US and at the University of Strasbourg, University of Rennes, and the University of Poitiers in France.
He performs regularly with numerous improvisation ensembles playing his own bamboo clarinets (sopranino to contrabass) as well as the single reed oboe, wood saxophone, double bell euphonium and darbouka. In 1995 Radio France broadcast a 5-part series on his compositions and improvisations.
He is a published poet and his poetry, paintings and photographs have been used by theatre groups, performers and composition students as resources for improvisation and composition in their concerts.
Press Reviews
"fleet virtuosic essay"
N.Y. Times
"in contemporary music, version Drake Mabry, inspiration is everywhere"
French television, M6 Découverte
"Interpreter, Composer, Instrument maker, Handyman - a virtuoso"
Radio France, Yvan Amar, Coda,