Although extremely serious about his music, 15-year-old cellist Gabriel Cabezas also likes to laugh. And he’s not picky about what he laughs at, chuckling with equal pleasure at a good joke as well as bad wordplay. For example, when asked to describe himself, he responds, “I think I’m creative—creative is very important—curious, confident, clever … wait! That’s four C’s! Plus my last name and my cello. It’s a coincidence! But I’ll add cheesy, because all the C-words sound so corny.”

And with that, Cabezas laughs.

Truth is, Cabezas, who lives in Wilmette, Illinois, comes off pretty much like any happy American teen, making it easy to forget his international celebrity. He claims to not particularly like math. Although it eventually comes out that he’s in advanced math classes at New Trier Township High School, in Evanston, Illinois, where he’s now a sophomore.

And, like most kids his age, he likes that Abercrombie & Fitch label. But, when perusing photographs from his many solo concerts, it’s clear that he’s also comfortable in a tux.

Then there’s his dual citizenship, because his father is Costa Rican. In fact, father and son hail from a long line of renowned Costa Rican musicians, including violinist Raul Cabezas and Zoraide Caggiano de Cabezas, international performers and founders of the School of Music at the University of Costa Rica.

Finally, there’s Cabezas’ resumé, pumped with press clippings, accolades, and awards for his cello playing, dispelling any remaining thoughts that this is an average teen.

Cabezas began his music studies at four, but back then he really wanted to play guitar. However, there was no guitar teacher at the neighborhood Suzuki studio, located in Chicago where he was born, so he went with cello. Along his musical journey, he fiddled around with violin, tried and passed on the piano, and experimented with the oboe as a fifth grader. Fortunately for his fans, Cabezas eventually dedicated himself solely to the cello, and his music career took off.

He’s performed with avant-banjoist Béla Fleck on the televised PBS-TV series From the Top—Live from Carnegie Hall and on National Public Radio’s From the Top and Performance Today, as well as “Exploring Music Live” with Bill McGlaughlin, and Northeastern Illinois University’s “Mostly Music” series.

His accomplishments in just the last three years include first-place laureate of the Junior Division of the 2006 Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players; bronze-medal winner of the Junior Division of the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (as a member of the BAM String Quartet); and overall-performance winner of the Midwest Young Artists Open Division of the 2005 Walgreens National Concerto Competition.

In the Quarter Note, a newsletter published by the Sphinx Organization, Cabezas is described as incredibly gifted. “His charismatic stage presence and moving performance of J.C. Bach’s Concerto in C minor made a lasting impression on the audiences and the esteemed jury panel alike, granting him the honors of the first-place laureate.”

To capture an emotional connection with his music, Cabezas often turns to his other passion—history.

A major aspect of earning first-place laureate in the Sphinx Competition has been Cabezas’ appearances with orchestras across the country through the Sphinx Professional Development Program. Cabezas has since guest soloed with the Nashville Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and Rackham Symphony Choir.

In March, Cabezas will open for the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, performing as guest soloist in the historic National Theatre in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Even with the spotlight now following his every bow stroke, Cabezas shies away from blatant bragging about his Sphinx Competition experience and jokes instead about the one moment he nearly lost it. “During the semi-finals, I played the Fifth Suite (of the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach),” he says. “It’s very interesting because you tune down the A string of your cello to G instead. I played the Fifth Suite first, so I came out onstage and everything was all nice and ready. Then, when I prepared to play my next piece (J.C. Bach’s Concerto in C minor), the tuning peg was stuck. It took about a minute and a half to get it right. It was the most stressful minute and a half of my entire life.

“It felt like an hour.”

He ends his story with another good laugh. Why not? Everything turned out great! As it always will. And why will everything always turn out great? “Just ’cuz,” Cabezas says. It’s an attitude that he applies to everything he does. “I’m very confident with myself. That sometimes comes across as cocky, but it helps make things possible. For me personally, if I think I can do something, then I can.”

Another prevailing attitude that catapults Cabezas’ playing into the extraordinary is his ability to mentally connect with his music’s origins. “Part of the challenge when you play something is to put yourself in the composer’s perspective and not your own,” he says. “That’s the mark of someone who can really play. It’s a lot like acting, and I try to play what I think the composer wanted to be heard.”

To capture an emotional connection with his music, Cabezas often turns to his other passion—history. “I think of history as reading a good novel; it’s just a story about real life.”

Through his history books, Cabezas has met—so to speak—several composers he’d like to know better. “It would be really interesting to talk to Schumann, late in his life, because he kind of got a little crazy, and actually lived in an insane asylum near the end,” he says. “To meet Shostakovich would be great, too, because he had so much personal feeling in his music. The suffering he had to go through. He slept by the door with a packed suitcase, so he wouldn’t wake his family in case Stalin’s police came to get him in the middle of the night. Or, Mahler! I played his Fifth Symphony in Aspen, about three years ago, and I learned how depressed he was until he met his future wife, and then for the next several months he was really sort of happy.

“It’s interesting how these composers—who went through such difficult periods—put their personal experiences into their music.”

Cabezas stops for a moment, considers his words, and admits that he sounds “obsessed with depression,” which is completely not the case. He’s a very happy teen looking forward to a wonderful career in music.

You can probably guess what he does next. He laughs.□