‘Abel Selaocoe & Manchester Collective’

You have versatile musicians, and then you have Abel Selaocoe. The South African virtuoso has spent many years reinventing what it means to play the cello. He moves seamlessly between the most divergent genres and styles, from collaborations with global music musicians (such as Seckou Keita) and innovative projects with beatboxers to dizzying interpretations of classical concertos, strengthening the bonds between western and non-western musical traditions as he does so. With Manchester Collective, an ensemble that has been blowing a wind of change through classical music since 2016, he presents Sirocco. This concert hurtles from Selaocoe’s frenzied arrangements for the cello to works by Stravinsky and Haydn, and from African traditionals to old Danish folk. Sirocco has it all.