A graduate of the School of Lutherie at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Querétaro, Mexico, Gabriela began her professional journey with an apprenticeship at a lutherie workshop in New Jersey, which later led her to relocate to the United States. Her deep interest in Baroque music and its instruments drove her to visit workshops and museums in England, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium, as well as the renowned William Monical & Son workshop in New York. She was first invited there as an apprentice and later became part of the team. In this prestigious workshop, specializing in the restoration, repair, adjustment, and setup of Baroque-style violins, violas, cellos, and violas da gamba, she received rigorous training in the construction and restoration of historical instruments.
After nearly a decade of learning from Bill and Phil Monical, she established her own workshop in Harlem, New York, where she has specialized in the restoration and adjustment of historical instruments, as well as in the construction of Baroque violins and violas. Her knowledge and expertise have benefited a new generation of historically informed performers for whom she has crafted instruments that adhere to the principles of historical performance practice.
Since 2013, she has served as an independent consultant for the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she has also delivered lectures on the construction and restoration of historical instruments. Her work was recognized by the MET Museum in the Musical Celebration of Women’s History Month with Luthier Gabriela Guadalajara in 2023. Additionally, she is responsible for maintaining the rental instrument collection of the Viola da Gamba Society of Greater NY. Her contributions have been acknowledged in specialized publications such as The Strad, Strings, and Early Music America, where she has been interviewed and has published articles on historical lutherie.
In 2023, she visited Medellín as a special guest to conduct a lutherie workshop, sharing her expertise with luthiers and musicians interested in organology and the construction of string instruments for early music.
Together with her husband, David Thompson, she runs Gabriela’s Baroque, an online store specializing in historical strings. In addition to her work in music and lutherie, she pursues other artistic expressions, including photography, visual arts, and watercolor painting.