A Symphony for Gaudí
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A century after the death of architect Antoni Gaudí, whose fantastical buildings helped define Barcelona's cultural identity, his work is inspiring a new tribute in music.
On June 10, Boston-based Catalan composer Olivia Pérez-Collellmir will premiere Seven Dreams of Gaudí, a symphonic-choral work honoring the architect's life and legacy. The performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona's ornate concert hall, is part of a year long public celebration of the Catalonian icon.
"Gaudí's name represents the Catalan culture," she said, "our heritage, values, identity, history, language and vision."
Maestra Marin Alsop will conduct 200 Philharmonia Orchestra musicians alongside Catalan soprano Núria Rial and three choirs from the renowned Orfeó Català.
The performance will mark the centennial of Gaudí's death and the completion of the tallest tower of his most famous work, the Basílica de la Sagrada Família — a milestone more than 140 years in the making. The eighteenth spire will house another of Gaudí's unrealized designs: a hyperboloid bell that will sound for the first time during the symphonic finale.
Seven Dreams of Gaudí unfolds in seven movements, each reflecting a stage in the architect's life: "Nature," "The Workshop," "Duality," "Grief," "The Uprising," "Prayer," and "The Basilica."
"It's the circle of nature," Pérez-Collellmir said. "Everything born comes back to die."
For the composer, growing up in Barcelona with her architect father meant weekend walks became lessons in *modernisme*, the Catalan Art Nouveau movement that transformed the city at the turn of the 20th century. They'd admire the tree-like columns of the Sagrada Família, the mountainous curves of Casa Milà, the wave of Mediterranean colors along Park Güell.
Gaudí's style drew from the natural world: branching spirals, honeycomb geometries and the shifting colors of the landscape. He believed architecture should mirror the forms and rhythms of nature, a philosophy that continues to define the visual identity of Barcelona.
Over the past four years, Pérez-Collellmir has studied the emotions and formative experiences that shaped the architect, including his religious faith, the craftsmanship of his father's blacksmith workshop and the loss of his mother and brother.
While studying Gaudí's writings, a quote resonated with her: "There is no beauty without drama or without loss."
The architect believed the human voice was the most powerful instrument to reach God, which led Pérez-Collellmir to build the work around choral music. The libretto, penned in Catalan by poet Anna Gual, explores the emotional and spiritual forces that shaped Gaudí's imagination.
The final movement centers on the bells Gaudí envisioned for the towers of the Sagrada Família. He designed a hyperboloid bell system that was part sculpture, part acoustic experiment. But the prototypes were lost during the Spanish Civil War.
For decades, the bells existed only in drawings. Now, working with architect and musician Galdric Santana, researchers at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have recreated them.
Santana, who directs the Gaudí Chair at the university, collaborated with Pérez-Collellmir to integrate the bells into her score.
"They sent me recordings of the overtones and resonance," she said. "I incorporated their tonality in the order they were built."
During the symphony's finale, the bells will ring publicly for the first time.
The premiere comes amid a landmark year for the Sagrada Família. Construction on the basilica began in 1882 and has spanned nearly a century and a half. This year, the central tower reached 172.5 meters, making the basilica what is expected to be the tallest church in the world.
The centenary mass is expected to draw global attention. Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit and preside over events marking the anniversary. The day after the premiere, Barcelona will host a free concert for about 15,000 people at Plaça de Catalunya.
The timing lends the premiere a cinematic quality. Morning ceremonies at the Sagrada Família will commemorate Gaudí's life. By evening, Pérez-Collellmir's music will fill the stained-glass hall of the Palau de la Música Catalana, a UNESCO-protected jewel of Catalan modernism.
For the composer, the occasion feels surreal. As a child, she attended concerts at the Palau listening to the music of Beethoven and Mozart.
"I never thought those walls would premiere a symphonic-choral work of mine," she said.
The event will bring together friends, family and colleagues from the two worlds that shaped her life: Barcelona and Boston, where she has lived for more than a decade and taught at the Berklee College of Music.
Among those in the audience will be her father, the architect who first introduced her to Gaudí's world. After suffering two strokes last year, he has recovered enough to attend.
"He's so emotional," she said. "I might need to stay a little far from them, or I'll be crying the whole time."
On June 10, Boston-based Catalan composer Olivia Pérez-Collellmir will premiere Seven Dreams of Gaudí, a symphonic-choral work honoring the architect's life and legacy. The performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona's ornate concert hall, is part of a year long public celebration of the Catalonian icon.
"Gaudí's name represents the Catalan culture," she said, "our heritage, values, identity, history, language and vision."
Maestra Marin Alsop will conduct 200 Philharmonia Orchestra musicians alongside Catalan soprano Núria Rial and three choirs from the renowned Orfeó Català.
The performance will mark the centennial of Gaudí's death and the completion of the tallest tower of his most famous work, the Basílica de la Sagrada Família — a milestone more than 140 years in the making. The eighteenth spire will house another of Gaudí's unrealized designs: a hyperboloid bell that will sound for the first time during the symphonic finale.
The architecture of identity
Seven Dreams of Gaudí unfolds in seven movements, each reflecting a stage in the architect's life: "Nature," "The Workshop," "Duality," "Grief," "The Uprising," "Prayer," and "The Basilica."
"It's the circle of nature," Pérez-Collellmir said. "Everything born comes back to die."
For the composer, growing up in Barcelona with her architect father meant weekend walks became lessons in *modernisme*, the Catalan Art Nouveau movement that transformed the city at the turn of the 20th century. They'd admire the tree-like columns of the Sagrada Família, the mountainous curves of Casa Milà, the wave of Mediterranean colors along Park Güell.
Gaudí's style drew from the natural world: branching spirals, honeycomb geometries and the shifting colors of the landscape. He believed architecture should mirror the forms and rhythms of nature, a philosophy that continues to define the visual identity of Barcelona.
Over the past four years, Pérez-Collellmir has studied the emotions and formative experiences that shaped the architect, including his religious faith, the craftsmanship of his father's blacksmith workshop and the loss of his mother and brother.
While studying Gaudí's writings, a quote resonated with her: "There is no beauty without drama or without loss."
The architect believed the human voice was the most powerful instrument to reach God, which led Pérez-Collellmir to build the work around choral music. The libretto, penned in Catalan by poet Anna Gual, explores the emotional and spiritual forces that shaped Gaudí's imagination.
Bells lost to history
The final movement centers on the bells Gaudí envisioned for the towers of the Sagrada Família. He designed a hyperboloid bell system that was part sculpture, part acoustic experiment. But the prototypes were lost during the Spanish Civil War.
For decades, the bells existed only in drawings. Now, working with architect and musician Galdric Santana, researchers at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have recreated them.
Santana, who directs the Gaudí Chair at the university, collaborated with Pérez-Collellmir to integrate the bells into her score.
"They sent me recordings of the overtones and resonance," she said. "I incorporated their tonality in the order they were built."
During the symphony's finale, the bells will ring publicly for the first time.
A city's milestone year
The premiere comes amid a landmark year for the Sagrada Família. Construction on the basilica began in 1882 and has spanned nearly a century and a half. This year, the central tower reached 172.5 meters, making the basilica what is expected to be the tallest church in the world.
The centenary mass is expected to draw global attention. Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit and preside over events marking the anniversary. The day after the premiere, Barcelona will host a free concert for about 15,000 people at Plaça de Catalunya.
The timing lends the premiere a cinematic quality. Morning ceremonies at the Sagrada Família will commemorate Gaudí's life. By evening, Pérez-Collellmir's music will fill the stained-glass hall of the Palau de la Música Catalana, a UNESCO-protected jewel of Catalan modernism.
A full-circle moment
For the composer, the occasion feels surreal. As a child, she attended concerts at the Palau listening to the music of Beethoven and Mozart.
"I never thought those walls would premiere a symphonic-choral work of mine," she said.
The event will bring together friends, family and colleagues from the two worlds that shaped her life: Barcelona and Boston, where she has lived for more than a decade and taught at the Berklee College of Music.
Among those in the audience will be her father, the architect who first introduced her to Gaudí's world. After suffering two strokes last year, he has recovered enough to attend.
"He's so emotional," she said. "I might need to stay a little far from them, or I'll be crying the whole time."
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*On April 21, Pérez-Collellmir will join Emmy Award–winning host Randy Cohen in New York City for a live podcast event about the upcoming performance.*Join the Club
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