Page 82 - FINAL_RPS Awards 2021 Coverage Book_Full (2)
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17 November 2021
Playing & Teaching
Abel Selaocoe: Uniting voice
South African cellist-singer-composer Abel Selaocoe’s genre-defying performances have earned
him several recent awards and a recording contract with Warner Classics. Tom Stewart meets the
Manchester-based musician following his powerful BBC Proms 2021 debut
Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou
Abel Selaocoe (centre) on stage at the Royal Albert Hall with Simo Lagnawi’s Gnawa London
collective for the Proms
What first fills the air of London’s vast Royal Albert Hall is the burnished sound of Abel Selaocoe’s
voice, not his cello. Selaocoe, who was born in South Africa, opens this packed-out performance at
the BBC Proms with a long, sighing phrase in Zulu: just a few pitches that begin high in his voice
before descending into its deepest reaches. Here we meet another of his many talents – mastery
of umngqokolo overtone singing, Selaocoe manipulating his throat to add a second pitch above the
first so that his words acquire an ember-like glow. A third layer arrives with the cello, obscured at
first low down in a sonic landscape populated by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, chamber
choir Bantu Voices and Chesaba, a trio Selaocoe formed in 2016 with British bass guitarist Alan
