Gaudí Centennial Marked by World Premiere of New Work by Olivia Pérez-Collellmir and Anna Gual, Conducted by Marin Alsop

GAUDÍ CENTENNIAL TO BE CELEBRATED WITH THE WORLD PREMIERE OF SEVEN DREAMS OF GAUDÍ, COMPOSED BY OLIVIA PÉREZ-COLLELLMIR WITH A LIBRETTO BY ANNA GUAL

MARIN ALSOP LEADS THE PREMIERE AS WELL AS WORKS BY ARVO PӒRT WITH THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA AND CHOIRS OF ORFEÓ CATALÀ AT THE PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA IN BARCELONA, JUNE 10, 2026

As part of the “Year of Gaudí” celebrations, Pérez-Collellmir’s seven-movement symphonic-choral work honors the life and legacy of Antoni Gaudí, whose work defines Catalonian modernism

Seven Dreams of Gaudí unfolds over seven movements or “dreams,” each reflecting a defining moment in Gaudí’s artistic and personal journey. Pérez-Collellmir describes the work as “an artistic exploration of the values of faith, nature, love, and pain that shaped Gaudí’s life.” Created under the artistic advisorship and mentorship of Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov, Pérez-Collellmir and Gual, who recently published her first poetry collection in English and Catalan titled Unnameable, have created a 35-minute work that guides listeners through the movements: “Nature,” “The Workshop,” “Duality,” “Grief,” “The Uprising,” “Prayer,” and “The Basílica.”

Taking place during the “Year of Gaudí,” which is also expected to mark the completion of the Tower of Jesus, the tallest of the eighteen towers rising from the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, will bring one of Gaudí’s unrealized acoustic projects to life. Gaudí’s distinctive hyperboloid bells, originally designed for the Sagrada Familia but whose prototypes were lost during the Spanish Civil War, are now being realized by architect and musician Galdric Santana, director of the Gaudí Chair at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. After more than 12 years documenting and studying Gaudí’s designs for the bells and the cathedral towers, Santana is now overseeing their casting. These bells, which will eventually ring from the towers of the Nativity facade, will sound for the first time in a musical context during the finale of Seven Dreams of Gaudí, fulfilling a dream left unfinished during Gaudí’s lifetime.

The first movement or dream, “Nature,” transports listeners to Gaudí’s childhood and honors nature as one of his greatest teachers. With much of his architecture drawing influence from organic forms, colors, natural structures, and the movement of living beings, this opening movement reveals how nature was a source of creativity for the young architect. Featuring a boy soprano voicing the perspective of a young Gaudí, the soloist is accompanied by voices representing Mother Nature, filling the space with colorful symphonic sound.

The second dream, “The Workshop,” finds influence from Gaudí’s father’s workshop, where Gaudí developed his ability to perceive space and volume through watching his father work with copper. The movement highlights the percussion section, mirroring the sounds of anvil and hammer strikes. It is propelled by mechanical and rhythmic noises, immersing the listener in the world of blacksmiths and ironworkers, who played a significant role during that era.

Exploring Gaudí’s internal world, the third dream, “Duality,” presents the idea of Gaudí as both a visionary genius and an obsessive character. Challenged by the aesthetic and beauty standards of the era, Gaudí faced the emotional turmoil of either conforming to societal expectations or pursuing his own radical visions, which were far ahead of their time.

Dream Four, “Grief,” reflects on Gaudí’s intimate bond with the maternal figure and Mother Nature. Having experienced the loss of many loved ones throughout his life, this movement emphasizes the voice of his mother, voiced by a Catalonian soprano, Núria Rial, who was a guiding presence and source of consolation. For Gaudí, grief is not merely sorrow, but an essential part of his emotional and artistic development.

Taking a significant musical and emotional shift, dream five, “The Uprising” commemorates the events of the Tragic Week, a series of violent social unrest and anti-clerical movements involving the Spanish army, anarchists, freemasons, socialists, and republicans in Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia in July 1909. Gaudí, who was a deeply religious man, was shaken by the hatred and destruction, contrasting sharply with his hope for a renewed humanity. Throughout the piece, the music illustrates how his spiritual vision clashes with the chaotic atmosphere of the time.

Reflecting Gaudí’s spiritual faith, dream six, “The Prayer,” focuses on his connection with God. As a devout Roman Catholic, Gaudí’s faith provided ongoing inspiration, strength, and comfort. Religion greatly influenced his architectural and design work, with the Sagrada Família serving as a physical symbol of the Catholic faith and a place for atonement for the sins of the modern world. Portraying Gaudí’s personal spiritual realm, this music in this penultimate movement depicts his intimate and spiritual connection with God.

The final dream, “The Basílica,” is dedicated to the Sagrada Família temple, which symbolizes the synthesis of Gaudí’s artistic and spiritual vision. The seventh movement will feature the unique tubular bells Gaudí designed, but never installed. Through Galdric Santana’s expertise, the bells have since been constructed and will ring for the first time in history, becoming one of the leading instruments of this movement. The work culminates with the convergence of his deep faith, inspiration from nature, technical mastery, and ambition to elevate architecture into a symbolic and transcendent experience.

Seven Dreams of Gaudí is developed by a diverse team of collaborators, including Galdric Santana as the Historic and Acoustic Advisor, Osvaldo Golijov as the Artistic Advisor, American composer Marti Epstein as the Artistic Mentor, Arturo Rodríguez as Co-Orchestrator, Jennifer Ritvo Hughes as Senior Producer, María del Mar de Ros Raventós as Institutional Relations Advisor, Raquel Peula as Associate Producer, and Almudena Campos as Advisor.

The program originated and is presented by EAC Productions, an independent company founded in 2020 by Renée Chan and Patrick Mitchell, fostering creativity and community through art and music. EAC develops and promotes musical and artistic projects across the US and Spain. EAC is inspired by community, history, and the preservation of local culture, and supports live music productions, street art projects in Barcelona’s El Born neighborhood, as well as a musical podcast exploring the history of New Orleans rhythm and blues music.

Palau de la Música Catalana

June 10, 2026, 8:00 pm

Philharmonia Orchestra

Marin Alsop, Music Director

Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana (Xavier Puig, director)

Youth Choir of the Orfeó Català (Pablo Larraz, director)

Young Women’s Choir of the Orfeó Català (Montserrat Meneses, director)

Program

A. Pärt: Da pacem domine (strings and choir)

A. Pärt: Tabula Rasa (solo violins, prepared piano and chamber orchestra)

O. Pérez- Collellmir: Seven Dreams of Gaudí (for choir and orchestra, world premiere)

Tickets between €20 and €95

For more information and sales: www.palaumusica.cat

Born in Barcelona and now based in Boston where she is a professor in the piano and ensemble departments at Berklee College of Music, Olivia Pérez-Collellmir is a Catalan composer and pianist whose work is rooted in classical tradition and cultural memory, while embracing a bold, contemporary voice. Her music reflects both European and American influences, blending emotional depth with rhythmic vitality into a distinctive compositional language—what composer Osvaldo Golijov has called “a striking and gorgeous distillation of profound lyricism and rhythms that are ferocious and elegant at the same time. It stays in my mind long after hearing it.”

She began studying piano at the age of four and was accepted into the Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona at just eight years old, where she completed her formal training and graduated as a classical pianist. Her mentors include Núria Bonells, a principal disciple of Alicia de Larrocha and part of a pianistic lineage tracing back to Granados and Albéniz. She also studied with Antoni Besses (a disciple of Mompou and Messiaen, and a collaborator of Copland and Ginastera) and with Josep Maria Colom at the Hindemith Foundation in Switzerland. Alongside her musical training, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, a Master’s degree in Education and Music from Berklee College of Music, and completed doctoral coursework in Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. Read Pérez-Collellmir’s full bio here.

Alsop is Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, where she leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual residencies. She is the first Music Director of the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival, Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after an outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director.

Alsop has made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, and in the 24-25 season became the first U.S.-born woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.

To promote and nurture female conductors’ careers, in 2002 she founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. The only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, she has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award. The Conductor, a documentary about her life, was nominated for an Emmy and recognized with a Naples International Film Festival award. Read Alsop’s full bio here.

Anna Gual is one of Catalonia’s most vital poetic voices, writing in Catalan. Her explorations, and the singular ways she embarks on and writes about them, draw in poets, readers, and critics alike. She has received several prestigious awards for her poetry, including the Miquel de Palol Prize, the Bernat Vidal i Tomàs Prize, the Senyoriu Ausiàs March Prize, and the Pare Colom Prize for Mediterranean Poetry.

Gual’s first book, Implosions (2008), now in its fourth edition, was published when she was twenty-two. Her blog, No caic, em tiro, won the 2012 Prize for the Best Blog Written in Catalan. Since then, she has consistently published prize-winning collections of poetry: L’ésser solar (2013), Símbol 47 (2015), Molsa (2016), El tubercle (2016), Altres semideus (2019), Ameba (2020), and Les Ocultacions (2022). Additionally, she edited Jo tinc mort petita (2025).

In 2021–2022 was artist-in-residence at the Palau de la Música Catalana. Her poems have been translated into numerous languages and appear in international journals including Circumference, Four Way Review, Harvard Review, Hyperion, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry, Poetry International, and, forthcoming, World Literature Today. Read Gual’s full bio here.

Praised for the purity and luminosity of her voice and the naturalness of her expression, Nuria Rial has become one of Europe’s leading interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire. An exclusive SONY Classical artist since 2009, she has released more than thirty albums, and her artistic interests extend to jazz, flamenco, and opera in collaboration with other disciplines.

Trained in Basel with Kurt Widmer, Rial has appeared at major opera houses including La Monnaie, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Teatro Real, and at leading festivals such as Salzburg, Lucerne, and Bachfest Leipzig. She has collaborated with conductors including Giovanni Antonini, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, and Trevor Pinnock, and with ensembles such as Il Giardino Armonico, The English Concert, Concerto Köln, and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Her recordings for SONY Classical, Harmonia Mundi, and Erato have received honors including the Orphée d’Or, Echo Klassik, and Opus Klassik Awards. She was named “Young Female Artist of the Year” in 2009 and won the 2020 Opus Klassik Award for Best Vocal Soloist in Opera for Muera Cupido with Fahmi Alqhai and Accademia del Piacere.

Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras. Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali took up the baton as Principal Conductor in 2021, and Marin Alsop joined him as Principal Guest Conductor in 2023. They follow in illustrious footsteps: Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Ricardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Esa-Pekka Salonen are some of the key figures who have honed the renowned Philharmonia sound over eight decades.

The Philharmonia is known for embracing innovative technology. The Orchestra’s recordings include benchmark LPs, more than 150 film and videogame soundtracks and streamed performances. Its recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is travelling through interstellar space on board the Voyager spacecraft, and its immersive installations and virtual reality (VR) experiences have introduced many thousands of people to orchestral music. The Philharmonia is committed to nurturing and developing the next generation of instrumentalists and composers, with a focus on increasing diversity within the classical music industry. Learn more about the Philharmonia here.

Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana (Cor de Cambra)

The chamber choir at the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Cor de Cambra, is one of the most prestigious professional choirs in Spain. The choir was founded by the Orfeó Català in 1990 in order to promote universal choral music, give new energy to Catalan musical heritage, and encourage new compositions. Xavier Puig is the current choir director, while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. The Cor de Cambra has also been led by conductors such as R. Jacobs, M. Minkowski, K. Nagano, S. Rattle, D. Barenboim, C. Rousset, V. Jurowski, D. Gatti, S. Carrington, F. Biondi, and G. Dudamel.

The Cor de Cambra has performed throughout Spain and internationally, including at the BBC Proms in London and the MÜPA Festival in Budapest. Notably, the choir performed in Los Angeles (USA) at the start of the choir’s international tour, giving a rendition of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio with the LA Phil, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel (2024).

Young Women’s Choir of the Orfeó Català (Cor de Noies)

Founded in 2000 by Lluís Vilamajó, the choir is made up of forty-two young women between sixteen and twenty-five years old, most of whom started in the Orfeó Català children’s choirs. Montserrat Meneses is the choir director while Maria Mauri is the pianist.

In the 2016-17 season, the choir took part in the Heimat Project alongside Mädchenchor Hannover, under the baton of Simon Halsey. In July 2018 the choir made its début at the Festival Grec performing the opera The Monster in the Maze by J. Dove. In 2019 the Cor de Noies made its début at the Berlin Philharmonie, as part of an invitation to participate in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Vocal Heroes choral project, directed by Simon Halsey. The choir was also a finalist in the Let the Peoples Sing amateur choir competition. Highlights from 2023 include opening the Festival Grec with the show The Pulse, alongside the Australian contemporary circus company Gravity and Other Myths.

Youth Choir of the Orfeó Català (Cor Jove)

The Cor Jove is made up of sixty singers aged between sixteen and twenty-five. Founded in 1986, Pablo Larraz is the current choir director while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. The choir has sung alongside the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, London Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra de Lisboa, Ensemble Pygmalion, Orquesta Nacional Clásica de Andorra, Orquestra de Cambra Terrassa 48 and The Tallis Scholars, among other ensembles. The choir has also worked with conductors H. Christophers, R. Pichon, G. Noseda, S. Rattle, S. Halsey, P. Phillips and M. Gardolińska.

The Cor Jove has performed in Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona, Cervera, Sabadell, Valencia, Seville, Granada, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as well as in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The vocal ensemble has recorded a number of albums, including Aigües de primavera (2010), Requiems (2013) by Mozart and Fauré, for Columna Música, and Musicals! (2017, Palau Records) by A. Guinovart. Learn more about the Orfeó Català here.

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