Gary Gibson is an internationally-known percussionist and composer, specializing in steel pan, drumset, and vibraphone, and has visited 200+ steel band programs throughout the United States as guest artist/clinician. He has recorded four critically acclaimed albums of progressive original music for the steel pan (and other instruments), was a winner of Trinidad’s “Panorama National Steelband Championship” with the Exodus Steel Orchestra in 2004, and the 1st Prize winner of two out of three categories of Trinidad’s “Symphony and Steel” composition competition.

A jazz musician at his core, he holds a masters degree in classical music performance, and is regularly commissioned by groups ranging from steel bands to symphony orchestras to choirs to compose original works, often involving the steel pan or steel band in some way.

He has been active in his home area of Seattle, Washington, USA, as a percussionist, including working on film soundtracks with musicians of the Seattle Symphony, drumming in the pit at Seattle’s 5th Avenue and Paramount theaters, and drumming or playing vibraphone in numerous local jazz groups. He was on the faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, was a regular faculty at the Jazz Port Townsend summer jazz camp, and directs the steel band program at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. He also has directed steel bands in the Kent and Edmonds school districts, and the University of Washington steel band.

He established his Seattle-based non-profit steel band program, "Steel Magic Northwest," in 2016. It has grown to almost 100 members, and continues to grow.