Manchester Collective and Abel Selaocoe

Known for their experimental programming and daring collaborations, the work of Manchester Collective has expanded at breakneck speed since their formation in 2016 by co-founders Adam Szabo (Chief Executive) and Rakhi Singh (Music Director). They now play in concert halls, gig venues and factory spaces across Europe and the UK, performing a combination of cutting-edge contemporary music, classical masterpieces, and staged work to a hungry, new audience.

Crossing different genres and artforms, new music is of vital importance to the Collective – in recent years, they have commissioned major works by artists including Edmund Finnis, Hannah Peel, Lyra Pramuk, and Laurence Osborn. In 2021, they made their Royal Albert Hall debut as part of the BBC Proms Festival and are currently artists-in-residence at the Southbank Centre in London. Manchester Collective record for the Icelandic label Bedroom Community. Their second album ‘Shades’ was released in March 2022.

South African cellist Abel Selaocoe is a rapidly rising star who is redefining the parameters of the cello. He moves seamlessly across a plethora of genres and styles, from collaborations with world musicians and beatboxers, to concertos and solo performances. Selaocoe combines virtuosic performance with improvisation, singing and body percussion, and is devoted to composing works and curating programmes that highlight the links between Western and non-Western musical traditions, broadening the horizons of classical music to reach a more diverse audience.

In 2016, Selaocoe formed Chesaba – a trio specializing in music from the African continent, including many of his own compositions. He enjoys close collaborations with musicians from a medley of genres, including Bernhard Schimpelsberger, Tim Garland, Seckou Keita, Giovanni Sollima, Famoudou Don Moye and Gwilym Simcock. He has a close partnership with Manchester Collective, with whom he devised the hugely successful Sirocco programme which has been enjoyed both live and digitally by audiences since 2019. In 2020/21, Selaocoe performed at Kings Place, Norfolk & Norwich and Ryedale Festivals, and performed with ensembles including BBC Concert Orchestra at the EFG London Jazz Festival, Manchester Collective and Britten Sinfonia.

Selaocoe made his solo BBC Proms debut in August 2021, curating a programme with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Chesaba and Gnawa Ensemble. Other highlights of the 2021/22 season include a tour with Manchester Collective and Chesaba of their new collaboration, The Oracle; debuts with St Paul Chamber Orchestra and at Stanford Live; and performances both solo and with Chesaba throughout the UK and Europe.

Abel Selaocoe is an exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics and his debut album Where is Home? (Hae Ke Kae), on the subject of home and refuge, will be released on Friday 23 September 2022.

Selaocoe completed his International Artist Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music in July 2018. In May 2021, he was announced as an inaugural Power Up Music Creator participant in PRS Foundation’s new initiative to address anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the music sector and in July 2021, he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation award for his compositional work.