When We Were Trees

Cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe is a born performer who effortlessly navigates different genres and styles, working just as easily with beatboxers and orchestras. He combines his cello playing with voice, overtone singing and body percussion, and for When We Were Trees he will perform with the 21 string players of the German Ensemble Resonanz. The programme will feature own compositions and improvisations by Selaocoe, alongside works by Antonín Dvořák and Giovanni Sollima, as well as the world premiere of a new cello concerto by composer Kate Moore. Moore was a sensation at the Holland Festival before with Sacred Environment (2017). 

Together with the string ensemble Resonanz - praised in Hamburg for their 'urban string' series - Selaocoe’s When We Were Trees promises a programme brimming with musical virtuosity, spontaneity and brilliant improvisations. 

The work by sound artist and composer Kate Moore was directly inspired by organic forms and sounds from nature. Moore is fascinated by the architectonic, physical and psycho-acoustic properties of sound. Abel Selaocoe’s performances with singing and body percussion inspired her to create a concerto for cello and voice, which she wrote especially for him. 

In Dvořák’s Waldesruhe, four cellos bring an ode to the calm of the forest. Dvořák’s works are some of the most popular classical music pieces of all time and incorporate elements from Bohemian folk music. Waldesruhe was first published in the autumn of 1894. 

With When We Were Trees, Giovanni Sollima looks back at what once was a forest. The unconventional Italian cellist/composer, an important source of inspiration for Selaocoe, creates an own world that effortlessly blends classical music and folklore, and rhythmically energetic and meditative music alike.