Who is Abel Selaocoe?
Cellist Abel Selaocoe is a multi-talented, award-winning musician and innovator whose music defies pigeon-holing. As comfortable performing a classical concerto as he is improvised jazz, Selaocoe is a thrilling young artist who continues to surprise and delight audiences. Originally from South Africa, Selaocoe studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK, graduating in 2018. Since then he has explored many avenues of music-making, performing in concert here in the UK and down in South Africa. Hes a musician who likes to push boundaries  Abel Selaocoe is a genre-bending performer who is passionate about opening up classical music to a wider and more diverse audience. He co-founded the Kabantu ensemble and the Chesaba trio, the latter specialising in music by African composers. Both ensembles have performed with partners from a variety of musical backgrounds. In curating recitals, Selaocoe seeks to bring different music traditions together in unusual ways. He appeared with the BBC Concert Orchestra and his trio Chesaba at the 2020 EFG London Jazz Festival. Abel Selaocoe: not just a cellist  Abel Selaocoe is also a singer and often incorporates his own vocalisations into his music, even while he is playing the cello. Hes also a keen body percussionist, so is really something of a one-man band! Actually not a huge amount yet; he has recorded some music by Karl Jenkins and collaborated with the folk group Teyr. Listen to Abel Selaocoes album with Karl Jenkins on Spotify and Apple Music. Buy the album from Amazon and iTunes. Listen to Estren, Abel Selaocoes album with folk group Teyr, on Spotify and Apple Music. Buy the album from Amazon and iTunes. There are some great performances of Abel Selaocoe on YouTube, though like this take on a piece by Giovanni Sollima, called Lamentatio. Selaocoes performance with Manchester Collective is also worth checking out. Advertisement  Top image credit: Mlungisi Mlungwana