One musician, one cello, one chair, one music stand and .. whoever wants to listen to beautiful cello music.

A tour with cello music in Rotterdam

​Musicalia is a series of live solo concerts by Ania Katynska, a Polish born and Rotterdam based baroque cello player. Musicalia concerts happen in unexpected and often surprising locations. These locations can basically be anything and anywhere, but one thing they’re not:  traditional classical concert venues. No concert halls, but local community centers or homeless shelters, hospitals, a bookstore or perhaps even at your home. Musicalia allows people to listen to and experience the music in their own way. Musicalia does not expect people to sit in their chairs for two hours straight, without being allowed to get up or to talk. People are free to join a concert for as long as they like, they are allowed to move freely. They might enjoy their lunch break or meditate, or perhaps even start dancing. Some concerts will be in fully publicly accessible locations, open for anyone to join. Other concerts might be in people’s ‘safe spaces’, like, for instance a homeless or refugee shelter.  So, no Musicalia concert will be the same, as the outcome great depends on the time and place – and the people present.

​During each concert, the performer – Ania Katynska –  will try to ‘read the room’ and become part of that very room, to be part of the group of people, rather than being set apart from them. Ania wants to communicate and connect with them on both a musical and a deeper, personal level, sharing with them how she herself experiences the music that she’s playing. With Musicalia, there is room for questions, for conversations, for dialogue. Why the same piece might sound different every time and why live music and concerts are so important. Ania aims to give the audience an out of the ordinary musical experience, one that might evoke some deep and heartfelt emotions as well.

​The musical pieces she will perform are pieces for cello solo from the baroque era, mostly the Suites for the unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1007 – 1011). Musical pieces that are very, very well known, even if people don’t even realise it. Perhaps they might not know their names or not even the name of the composers, but the music will often sound familiar to them.  A lot of the famous Bach Suites were used in movies and commercials and there are numerous recordings of them. Musicalia gives Ania the opportunity to rediscover these famous cello suites by playing them in a far from traditional concert environment.

​Musicalia brings the soothing and healing power of classical cello suites to the people in a highly personal and even intimate setting – as opposed to most regular classical concert, with musicians performing on a distant stage. With Musicalia, the performer is as much part of the room as the audience, allowing the people to fully participate in performer’s emotions.