Gabriel Napoli

Gabriel Napoli joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra viola section in the fall of 2022 after three seasons at the New World Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. A native of Cleveland Ohio, Gabe started violin lessons at age 4.

Gabe earned his Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Northwestern University and his Master’s degree in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). His primary teachers include Almita Vamos, Robert Hanford, Robert Vernon, Mark Jackobs and Stephen Sims.  During his graduate studies at CIM,  Gabe was a member of the Akron Symphony, and has more recently performed as a substitute with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony.

While at the New World Symphony, Gabe was fortunate to receive mentorship of orchestral musicians from around the world including Principal Violists Cynthia Phelps, Jonathan Vinocour and Joan DerHovsepian as well as Michael Klotz of the Amernet String Quartet.

Gabe studied chamber music with the Dover Quartet, the Cavani Quartet, Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet and Si-Yan Darren Li. As a member of Quartet Amí during his time at Northwestern, Mr. Napoli worked closely with Mathias Tacke and Shmuel Ashkenasi of the Vermeer Quartet, and won first prize at the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians competition at Davidson College.

During his first seasons in Cincinnati, Gabe has had the pleasure of performing on the Ascent Chamber Music Summer Concert Series and the Linton Chamber Music Series alongside Violinist Evin Blomberg, Oboist Titus Underwood, CSO Principal Cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn, CSO Concertmaster Stefani Matsuo and Pianist-Composer Stewart Goodyear. Gabe is honored to be making his debut with the Soli Music Society.