Gabriel Cabezas, Cellist 2014

GABRIEL CABEZAS, CELLIST

An intense player who connects to music naturally,
without artifice, and brings a singing line to the cello (The
Oregonian), Gabriel Cabezas is one of America's most
sought after young musicians. Combining a superb
technique, intellectual curiosity and a pioneering musical
spirit, Cabezas is at home in front of an orchestra,
performing with a singer-songwriter or sharing the stage
with a dance troupe. What drives him is the delight of
artistic collaboration, the need for genuine communication
with audiences and the search for new musical
experiences.

In 2014/15 Cabezas maintains ongoing partnerships with close colleagues and friends. He travels far
and wide with the genre-bending musicians of New York's yMusic; joins the consummate chamber
musicians of the Marlboro Festival for Gabriel Faur's Piano Quartet No.2; tours an arrangement of
Bach's immortal "Goldberg" Variations to Japan with violist Nobuko Imai; appears in a staged
version of Gabriel Kahane's The Ambassador as part of BAM's 2014 Next Wave Festival; and plays
in Chicago alongside bassist Edgar Meyer in Meyer's trio score for a production by the San
Francisco-based LINES Ballet.

Cabezas has appeared as soloist with America's finest orchestras, including those of Philadelphia,
Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Pittsburgh and Nashville. In
2014/15 he performs Tchaikovsky's virtuoso "Rococo" Variations with the Amarillo Symphony
(Texas), and Shostakovich's blistering Cello Concerto No.1 with the Decatur Symphony (Illinois).

Born and raised in Chicago, Cabezas preserves a close relationship with the City of Big Shoulders.
In 2014 he makes his debut with Chicago's Grant Park Festival Orchestra, in Saint-Sans' Cello
Concerto No. 1, and performs on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, a series inspired by the
revered pianist's free concerts in World War II London. Cabezas also has strong family ties to Costa
Rica; his great uncle founded the country's National Conservatory and is the only Costa Rican
musician to have performed at Carnegie Hall in the 20th Century. Cabezas returns often to play with
the Orquesta Sinfnica Nacional de Costa Rica and work with students at the Programa Nacional de
Educacin Musical, a program similar and developed simultaneously to El Sistema of Venezuela.

Cabezas studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Carter Brey, and is a recipient of the Career
Grant by the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation. He is a winner of the 2014 Astral Artists National
Auditions, and joins this presenting and promotional organization's roster of America's finest young
soloists and chamber musicians. In addition, Cabezas is a two-time winner of the Sphinx
Competition. A committed advocate for community engagement and education programs across the
country, he is involved with Midoris Partners in Performance, the Sphinx Organization and
Chicagos Citizen Musician movement.


Gabriel Cabezas, Cellist 2014
CRITICAL ACLAIM


CHICAGO TRIBUE "Gabriel Cabezas victorious in Grant Park debut From the exhilarating
way in which Cabezas launched the opening bars of Saint-Sans Concerto No. 1, one sensed the soloist was
not about to let a few chilly raindrops deter him from delivering a full-bloodied account of this French
Romantic staple. (John von Rhein, July 3, 2014)

CHICAGO CLASSICAL "With a warm, commodious sound and sterling technique, the cellist fairly
vaulted through the myriad challenges of the outer movements with firmly projected tone embracing clarity
of articulation, unfaced by the damp, chilly night Cabezas also showed himself fully in synch with the
rhapsodic element, tackling Saint-Sans lyrical lines in a sweet cantabile style. (Lawrence A. Johnson, July
3, 2014)

CHICAGO TRIBUE "I was also pleased to catch up with two inordinately gifted young artists
headed for fast-track careers, Canadian violinist Nikki Chooi and Chicago-born cellist Cabezas. Both were
joined on Monday evening by violist Matthew Lipman and Lepauw for a program of chamber music by
Beethoven, Schumann and Alfred Schnittke. Such was the finely honed unanimity the musicians brought to
these scores that you could well have mistaken this ad hoc ensemble for a seasoned chamber group. Chooi,
Lipman and Cabezas brought controlled intensity to the Schnittke, and unsettling if gripping essay in pain,
bitterness and, at the end, numbed resignation." (John von Rhein, September 10, 2013)

BOSTO GLOBE "...the weekend's highlight - a phenomenal performance of the Schoenberg
String Trio. Like many of the composer's late 12-tone works, it carries a forbidding reputation. Yet the three
performers - violinist Ida Levin, violist Emily Deans, and cellist Gabriel Cabezas - played it with such
confidence and so sure a grasp of its dramatic flow that its alleged thorniness disappeared. What was left was
a piece of great imagination and almost tragic poignancy and depth." (David Weininger, August 2, 2011)

EW YORK TIMES "One highlight was an impassioned rendition, by Gabriel Cabezas, of
'Perpetual Motion' from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinsons 'Lamentations' for solo cello. Mr. Cabezas, a student at
the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia who won the senior division of the Sphinx Competition this year, was
presented onstage with the Isaac Stern Award, offered annually to a particularly promising Sphinx
prizewinner. (Stern, who died in 2001, taught several winners privately.)" (Vivien Schweitzer, October 10,
2012)

PRICE GEORGIA "This time Maestro Elliott lent his formidable musical talents in support of
an amazing young soloist, Gabriel Cabezas ... His technical proficiency and musicianship was partnered with
the Philharmonic's demonstrated musical ability to showcase and not overwhelm guest soloists. The brilliance
of Mr. Cabezas' playing electrified the audience." (John Thompson, April 8, 2013)

LA SPLASH "Cabezas was an intense soloist, but he also displayed a great deal of
tenderness and sensitivity in his playing." (Adam Dahlgren, December 11, 2013)

SEE AD HEARD "The fiery opening was particularly exciting, performed by Gabriel Cabezas
with hearty aggressiveness; a second helping was something to relish." (Daniele Sahr, December 17, 2013)

LOCALARTSLIVE "Both pieces were performed beautifully, and the acoustics at St. Mark's
magnified the pure tones of the woodwinds as their sound bounced around the massive stone sanctuary."
"Electricity and passion for the music filled the cavernous space, and the audience erupted in a standing
ovation lasting several minutes once the flying bows came to rest. Only the most talented, dedicated and
passionate musicians could pull off such a feat; all the more astonishing considering the short amount of time
to prepare compounded by a heavy burden of distractions." (Sharon Torello, May 11, 2011)

Gabriel Cabezas, Cellist 2014
REPERTOIRE



BARBER Op. 22

DVORK B Minor, Op. 104

ELGAR E Minor, Op. 85

HAYD C Major, Hob. VIIb:1

HAYD D Major, Op. 101, Hob. VIIb:2

KABALEVSKY No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 49 (and no. 2)

LALO D Minor

PROKOFIEV Sinfonie Concertante, Op. 125

SAIT-SAS No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33

SCHUMA A Minor, Op. 129

SHOSTAKOVICH No. 1 in E flat Major, Op. 107

TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

VIVALDI G Minor for Two Cellos, F. III, No. 2, P. 411

WALTO Concerto



OTHER ORCHESTRAL WORKS AVAILABLE UPO REQUEST

EW WORKS AD SPECIAL COMMISSIOS ALSO AVAILABLE UPO REQUEST

Gabriel Cabezas, Cellist 2014
COTACT



BOOKIGS
ASTRAL ARTISTS
Vera Wilson
Vera@AstralArtists.org
215-735-6283



IFORMATIO
www.gabrielcabezas.com
gabrielcabezascello@gmail.com
224-406-2177



RECORDIG SAMPLES
http://gabrielcabezas.com/index.php/listen