The Essay: Five Cellos - Lost and Found

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The Essay: Five Cellos: Lost and Found: The Flat-Pack Cello

The Flat-Pack Cello

Five Cellos: Lost and Found

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Five Cellos: Lost and Found, The Flat-Pack Cello

Kate Kennedy reflects on a reimagined cello whose story is yet to begin.

Instrument makers are building a hybrid instrument to enable musicians to make their own quality cellos. Kate Kennedy reflects on a reimagined cello whose story is yet to begin.

Writer and musician Kate Kennedy takes a personal look at five lost cellos, and what they can tell us of those who played and loved them and how our identities are shaped by the physical, social and psychological impacts of performance

What happens when you re-imagine what a cello can be? From pieces of derelict instruments, and offcuts of wood, along with cutting edge technology, Kate Kennedy is making a prototype of a new, hybrid cello, that looks nothing like we might expect. This is a cello whose story is yet to begin.

Working amidst the wood shavings and priceless instruments in the historic workshop of Hill and Sons, the cello parts are destined for a youth orchestra in Argentina and designed to be easily reassembled by the young players. Every aspect of the instrument has been re-imagined. As Kate stumblingly creates the very first cello for them, getting to know a cello’s every contour, she reflects on perhaps the weirdest cello ever made, and its role as an instrument for the future, shaping young lives, and telling new stories.

Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Technical production by Mike Sherwood
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 3

The Essay: Five Cellos: Lost and Found

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