Cello - Is It Me You’re Looking For?

To the Tung Auditorium tonight with my old pal Sarah to see the magnificent South African cellist Abel Selaocoe www.abelselaocoe.com play with the excellent Manchester Collective https://manchestercollective.co.uk/sirocco

I’ve seen both of them before and would highly recommend them if you ever get the opportunity - particularly if you can see them together!

This show, ‘Sirocco’ blends Selaocoe’s own compositions with amazing improvisations, traditional South African music, the Western classical canon (Purcell, Haydn, Britten) and more, with a focus on joyful collaboration and the unifying nature of music - particularly in such disunited times. The musicians were:

Cello - Abel Selaocoe
Percussion - Sidiki Dembele
Violin - Rakhi Singh
Violin - Simmy Singh
Viola - Ruth Gibson
Electric Bass - Alan Keary

Not only is Selaocoe a cello virtuoso but he has the most infectious personality and beautiful voice, and his energy is amazing - not least when he gets up and dances with his cello. More pics in the Extras.

By the end of the show he had the whole audience up singing and dancing too.

Here he is with the Manchester Collective and a small taste of the show… https://youtu.be/mJZ4zd7Acq0

A memorable night!