Berklee Alumna and Assistant Professor Olivia Pérez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaudí Centennial in Barcelona

On June 10, the city of Barcelona will mark the centennial of visionary Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudí’s passing at the Palau de la Música Catalana with the world premiere of Els Set Somnis de Gaudí (Seven Dreams of Gaudí) by Berklee faculty member and Catalonia native Olivia Pérez-Collellmir BM '17.

Pérez-Collellmir’s monumental symphonic choral work will feature a libretto by award-winning Catalonian poet Anna Gual. The piece brings together 200 musicians from the London Philharmonia Orchestra and choirs of Orfeó Català, including Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana, Youth Choir of the Orfeó Català, and Young Women’s Choir of the Orfeó Català, along with Catalonian soprano Núria Rial; it will be conducted by Marin Alsop.

Seven Dreams of Gaudí takes place over seven movements or “dreams,” reflecting a defining moment in the artist’s journey. Pérez-Collellmir has described the work as “an artistic exploration of the values of faith, nature, love, and pain that shaped Gaudí's life.” Created under the artistic mentorship of Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov, Pérez-Collellmir and Gual have created a 45-minute work that guides listeners through the following movements: “Nature,” “The Workshop,” “Duality,” “Grief,” “The Uprising,” “Prayer,” and “The Basílica.”

“As a native of Catalonia, it is a true honor to be part of the vision for the year of Gaudí,” said Pérez-Collellmir. “This symphonic choral work is a deep artistic exploration of the values of faith, nature, love, and pain that shaped Gaudí’s life, and I am so appreciative to the many artists and institutions who have come together to make it a reality. To bring this work to life at the Palau de la Música Catalana alongside the Orfeó Català and the London Philharmonia Orchestra under Marin Alsop is profoundly meaningful. Commemorating the centennial of Gaudí’s passing through art is so important, and I am certain this event will be as visionary as the artist himself.”

Taking place during the “Year of Gaudí,” the premiere coincides with the completion of the Tower of Jesus, the tallest of the eighteen towers rising from the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, and brings one of the artist’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. Santana has spent more than 12 years documenting Gaudí's designs and is now overseeing the casting of the bells. 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 the artist’s lifetime.

About Olivia Pérez-Collellmir

Born in Barcelona, and now based in Boston where she teaches 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, at just eight years old, was accepted into the Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona, 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. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree as a dual major in performance and professional music from Berklee, and has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a master’s degree in education and music, and has completed doctoral coursework in philosophy at the University of Barcelona. Read Pérez-Collellmir’s full biography.