5-String Cello Presentation & Demonstration

Pacific Union College,Angwin CA 94508

30 November, 2022

Description

Rocío López Sánchez, cello instructor at Pacific Union College and Paulin Center for the Arts, will talk about and demonstrate this unique instrument. She will be playing excerpts of Bach's Six Suites for Cello--pieces composed specifically for the 5-string cello but rarely performed on said instrument today. This event is free and open to the public. As this is an academic presentation, it is probably best enjoyed by music enthusiasts over 12 years old. The 5-string cello, also called a cello piccolo, was “the norm” in the Baroque music scene until it was replaced by the modern 4-string cello. Bach wrote his six suites for unaccompanied cello for the 5-string cello, but we rarely, if ever, hear them played on this original instrument. HOWEVER, López Sánchez will be performing excerpts from these suites on this unique instrument during her presentation. Baroque instruments have a different sound from the modern instruments we’re all used to hearing; usually they have gut strings (rather than today’s common steel), a convex shaped bow, and other traits that make their sound special. The cello piccolo, of course, has the additional feature of a fifth string. López Sánchez hails from Madrid, Spain, and earned her professional studies diploma from San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2021. She has been part of master classes and music festivals across Europe, as well as with Juilliard and Ying Quartets. She has been teaching in the pre-college program at SFCM since 2020 and joined PUC’s department of music and Paulin Center for the Arts at the beginning of 2022.