Cellist tackles massive work in one performance
Bach Suites usually performed over two days
On Monday, Oct. 18, an Olympic-sized performance of all six Bach Cello Suites takes place on the MSUM campus. The musical Olympian is cellist Zuill Bailey, whose interpretation and recent recording of the Bach Suites, number one on the Classical Billboard/Soundscan Charts for several weeks, are considered the world’s current best.
Fans of the HBO series Oz will recognize Bailey as the cello-playing prison inmate who murdered an orchestra’s concertmaster by stabbing him with the endpin of his cello onstage before a concert. He’s also been featured on Homicide: Life on the Streets. Bailey says he relishes opportunities like those to bring cello music to new audiences, but most of his days are spent concertizing, teaching cello at the University of Texas at El Paso and serving as Artistic Director of the El Paso Pro Musica Chamber Festival and Series in Texas.
The Bach Suites are some of the most performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello. Cellists consider them transcendent masterpieces; general audiences love them for their sheer beauty and power. They’re challenging works to perform, and most often cellists will divide the six over two days. Bailey prefers to perform them in one evening, as cellist Yo Yo Ma has been known to do.
The performance is on the Gaede Stage in the Roland Dille Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for Bailey’s performance and other events in the Series are available now and can be purchased online at www.mnstate.edu/perform or by calling the MSUM Box Office at (218) 477-2271 Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are also available at the door.