Gabriel Cabezas, Cellist

Cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator. Praised for his artistry and charisma, he is as comfortable interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire and was named one of the “Composers and Performers to Watch” by The Washington Post. Gabriel has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras and has inspired and premiered dozens of new works by vanguard composers of the 21st century.

In the 2025-26 season, Cabezas will perform Gabriella Smith’s concerto Lost Coast in a pair of transatlantic performances with conductor Gemma New, first with the BBC Philharmonic for the piece’s UK premiere and then with the Seattle Symphony, where Gabriel will serve as the orchestra’s Artist in Focus. He will also perform this signature work with the Chicago Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Gabriel is a member of the genre-leading chamber sextet yMusic, acclaimed for “transcending all the conventions that they were trained in” (NPR Music). Their unique musicality has attracted collaborators from Paul Simon to Ben Folds, and inspired an expanding repertoire of works by prominent composers including Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli, and Andrew Norman. The ensemble’s debut self-composed album, YMUSIC (2023), was praised by Strings Magazine as “one of the most exciting and confident chamber music releases of the year.”

Gabriel recently co-founded the string quartet Owls, described by The New York Times as “a dream group.” With its unique instrumentation of violin, viola, and two cellos, the quartet weaves together new compositions with fresh arrangements of works from the 1600s to the present. Their debut album, Rare Birds, was released in 2025 on New Amsterdam Records to wide acclaim.

Gabriel is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, an early-career grant awarded to extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Carter Brey.