Gabriel Gonzalez Diges (Spain)

Born in Spain, Gabriel comes from a very musical family strongly linked to Castilian traditional music. He started studying music at the age of 7. After studying cello for 7 years, Gabriel changed classical music for jazz. He joined one of the best jazz schools in Madrid and discovered guitar and string instruments related to world and roots music.

Before moving to Ireland over a decade ago, Gabriel played and collaborated with several world music bands in Spain, playing acoustic guitar, bouzouki and mandolin. At that time, he was introduced to traditional wind instruments and decided to move to Galway to learn and collaborate with musicians from different parts of the world. After a period of time in Galway playing flute, whistle and pipes, he was one of the founding members of Alalé, a Spanish-Irish world music band that was a solid part of Galway´s cultural scene for over 6 years. With Alalé, Gabriel recorded two albums and toured around Europe. Gabriel currently works with various bands, playing traditional string and wind instruments and preparing his first solo album.