Ophélie Gaillard
AP432D - 67' - Sep 11, 2026
With Prayers, Ophélie Gaillard turns the cello into a voice of peace, resilience and connection.
Ophélie Gaillard here explores the cello as a fragile yet enduring human voice. Conceived as an act of inner resistance, this programme expresses a profound conviction: music can carve a path toward resilience, saying no to violence without raising its voice, choosing instead depth, beauty, and attentive listening.
Surrounded by young musicians and long-time artistic partners, Ophélie Gaillard shares here an experience of transmission and collaboration. Prayers is a journey meant to gather, to comfort, and to offer space for reflection in troubled times.
The cello becomes a confidant in Philip Glass’s Orbit, a lament with Valentin Silvestrov’s Lacrimosa. It leads to meditation with Jean-François Zygel and to ecstasy with Hildegard von Bingen. In quartet, it weaves lines with Barber and Bloch, and rises towards light with Arvo Pärt. From solitude to communion, from whisper to collective cry, Prayers seeks to tell a shared story and to open the possibility of a space for peace — faithful to the words of Pablo Casals: “Music drives hatred away from those who are without love. It consoles those who weep.”
Prayers
Ophélie Gaillard
1. For Ukraine ("The wide Dnipro roars and groans")
Hildegard von Bingen
2. Ave generosa (Cello Version)
Jean-François Zygel
3. Méditation
Hildegard von Bingen
4. O virdissima Virga (Cello Version)
Philip Glass
5. Orbit (Arr. by Ophélie Gaillard)
Ernest Bloch
6. From Jewish Life, B.54: I. Prayer (Arr. for Cello Quartet)
Arvo Pärt
7. Da pacem Domine (Cello Ensemble Version)
Samuel Barber
8. Adagio for Strings
Marc Mellits
9. Radu: II
Antonin Silvestrov
10. Lacrimosa
Arvo Pärt
11. Fratres (Cello Quartet Version)
12. Summa (Cello Quartet Version)
13. Spiegel im Spiegel (Version for Cello and Piano)
Pablo Casals
14. El cant dels ocells
See also
