Dr. Gabriel Statom received the Bachelor of Music Education degree with voice and piano emphasis from The University of Mississippi and the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting with organ as the principal instrument from Florida State University. Gabe completed the Doctor of Worship Studies degree from the Institute for Worship Studies, affiliated with Wheaton College and Northern Theological Seminary, both in Chicago, Illinois. Gabe has also studied at Princeton University, Westminster Choir College and the University of Oregon. Dr. Statom is Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Wales, FL and is Artistic Director of the Lake Wales Chorale. He is Musical Director of the Central Florida Bach Festival and has begun a professional ensemble specializing in the sacred music of J.S. Bach, The Bach Festival Chamber Choir. Under his direction, the FPC Chancel Choir was selected to perform at the 2002 Florida Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association Fall Conference in Orlando, Florida. This choir toured Scotland and England in 2003. Performances were in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Hall in London. In 2005, the Lake Wales Chorale toured and presented concerts in Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich and in 2007 toured Italy, with mass services presented in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, and concerts in Florence, Assisi and Rome. In April 2008, Dr. Statom will guest conduct in New York’s Carnegie Hall.

He has conducted extensively throughout the US including performances at the Spoleto Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival, and with orchestras such as the Memphis Symphony and the Mississippi Symphony. Major works he has conducted with orchestra include many Haydn Masses, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, and most recently Bach’s little known St. Luke Passion. He has studied conducting with Robert Shaw, André Thomas, Helmuth Rilling, Jerry Jordan, John Rutter and David Wilcocks. His organ teachers have included Michael Corzine and Warren Steele. His choral arrangements have been published with the Gene Thomas Music Group and has published articles in the American Choral Directors Association Choral Journal. Gabe has been on the staff of the Berkshire Choral Festival in 2002 and 2003, serving at the Sheffield, Massachusetts and Salzburg, Austria Festivals and at the Canterbury, England festival in 2006. Dr. Statom is an active clinician, adjudicator and teacher.

Dr. Statom is currently chairman of the Committee on Worship for the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, is serving on a special committee for the ARP Church that is updating the Directory of Public Worship, Vice-President of the Florida Chapter of Choristers Guild and is Past-President of the Polk Arts Alliance.