Forty-eight cellists will fill the stage at Roxbury Community College this Sunday, bows drawn together in a tribute to Pablo Casals, the Catalan cellist and activist. The concert, presented by Vivo Performing Arts, marks the 150th anniversary of his birth.
A Program Rooted in Casals's Own History
The concert takes place November 8 at 3 p.m. at Roxbury Community College, according to The Boston Globe. Vivo Performing Arts describes the event as the “48-cello orchestra” honoring “the 150th birthday of cellist and humanitarian Pablo Casals,” per its event listing. Eugene Friesen will conduct the ensemble, the listing notes.
The program includes arrangements of works by Casals and Villa-Lobos, according to the Globe.
Casals's Lasting Influence
Casals was born on December 29, 1876, in El Vendrell, according to the Pau Casals Foundation, which notes he discovered Johann Sebastian Bach's six cello suites in Barcelona early in his career. The foundation says his 150th birth anniversary falls on December 29, 2026, and that it is promoting commemorations of the milestone throughout 2026 and 2027, including a broad slate of exhibitions, concerts, and educational programs.
The Kennedy Center credits Casals's revival and interpretation of Bach's cello suites as his single greatest contribution as a cellist. After Franco took control of Catalonia in 1939, Casals fled to France and settled in the town of Prades, the Kennedy Center notes. He died in Puerto Rico on October 22, 1973, at age 96.
A Godson's Memories and a Mentor's Example
Lluis Claret has been a member of the New England Conservatory cello faculty since 2016, per the Globe.
Claret described the sound of a massed cello ensemble as needing lower voices and having a huge range, comparing it to “almost like a symphony orchestra.” Déjardin, in his own comments to the Globe, called the ensemble sound “very rich, very lush, very warm… all the reasons people tend to be drawn to the cello.”
Echoes of a 1956 Paris Gathering
Sunday's 48-cello lineup draws a direct line to history: Casals himself assembled an ensemble of 100 cellos in Paris in 1956, where the group performed his pieces “Les Rois Mages” and “Sardana,” the Globe reports. Robin Baker, associate director of community engagement at Vivo Performing Arts, told the paper that the Bach cello suites may have put the cello on the map as a solo instrument in the first place — a legacy this weekend's concert aims to carry forward in Roxbury.
