OMAHA, Neb. - A musical prodigy who completed high school at age 10 apparently committed suicide at 14, authorities said.

Brandenn E. Bremmer, who had studied piano improvisation at Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colo., was found dead Tuesday at his rural Venango home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, the Perkins County sheriff's office said.

Brandenn's mother Patricia said her son showed no signs of depression and had just finished the art for the cover of a second CD of his music. She said her son had plans for Wednesday and the rest of Tuesday, when he was found dead in their home. She did not disclose details of how he was found.

"We're rationalizing now," Patricia Bremmer said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. … He didn't want to impose on anyone. He was so connected with the spiritual world, we felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" to get his organs to people in need.

She said his kidneys went to two people, his liver to a 22-month old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.

Brandenn had decided in December that he wanted to be an anesthesiologist, his mother said. He started taking a biology class at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, where he had also taken courses in 2001. She said he planned to eventually attend the University of Nebraska.

David Wohl, who taught piano to Brandenn at Colorado State said he was shocked to learn of the apparent suicide.

"He wasn't just talented, he was just a really nice young man," said Wohl, a keyboardist, composer and assistant professor of music at CSU.

Patricia Bremmer and Brandenn's father Martin took turns driving their son to Fort Collins for 90 minute sessions every other week all of last year, Wohl said. He last saw Brandenn in mid-December, Wohl said.

"He had an easy smile. He really was unpretentious," Wohl said. "I treated him as a nice young man who wanted to improvise on the piano. He was a great pleasure to have."

Brandenn began playing the piano at 3 and took his first high school class at 6. He was home-schooled through high school, completing his junior and senior years in seven months. At 11, he starting taking independent study classes at Colorado State.

Brandenn took courses in the spring and fall semesters of 2002, CSU spokeswoman Dell Rae Moellenberg said. Since then, he had retained contact with some teachers at the school in a more private, tutorial relationship, Moellenberg said.

Janet Landreth, a professor of music at CSU who taught Brandenn, was home ill and declined to immediately comment, Moellenberg said.

The investigation into Brandenn's death was continuing, although there were no indications of foul play, the sheriff's office said. Reached late Friday afternoon at his home, Sheriff James D. Brueggeman said the investigation was ongoing and he would not comment.