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    The Cello Museum > Articles > Articles > NYWC August 2026 Spotlight: Elisenda Fabregas

NYWC August 2026 Spotlight: Elisenda Fabregas

22 August 2026
We are excited to continue our collaboration with the New York Women Composers (NYWC). This month, we present a piece by Elisenda Fabregas.

NYWC Spotlight Elisenda Fabregas Voices of the Rainforest for flute, cello and piano

Bio

Spanish-American composer, pianist, and lecturer Elisenda Fábregas was born in Terrassa, Catalonia, and has built an international career as both performer and composer. Trained as a pianist in Barcelona and at The Juilliard School, she later earned doctorates from Columbia University Teachers College and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and her music has been performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Fábregas has written for orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, voice, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, with recordings released on labels including Naxos, Bridge Records, Albany Records, and Centaur Records. Her works include a significant body of music featuring cello, among them Danses de la terra, Homenatge a Pau Casals, Uphill: from Clara to Robert, Voces de mi tierra, and Voices of the Rainforest. Since 2022, she has been based in Catalunya, where she was Composer in Residence at the Palau de la Música Catalana for the 2023–24 season.

Featured Work: Voices of the Rainforest for flute, cello and piano

COMPOSITION DETAILS

  • Title: Voices of the Rainforest for flute, cello and piano 
  • Composer: Elisenda Fabregas
  • Year of Composition: 2008
  • Performance Notes: It needs alto flute in movement IV (Voices of inside night)
  • Instrumentation: flute, cello, and piano
  • Movements: 5
    • I. Awakening
    • II. Sago gatherers
    • III. Evening storm
    • IV. Voices of inside night
    • V. Night spirits
  • Duration of Work: 23 minutes
  • Number of Measures: 
    • I  – 74 measures
    • II – 127 measures
    • III – 136 measures
    • IV. – 96 measures
    • V – 195 measures
  • Number of pages: 60
  • Tempo:
    • I  –  Andante, quarter = 65
    • II –  Allegro, quarter = 160
    • III –  A piacere, quarter = 50; Molto allegro, quarter = 138
    • IV. –  Adagio misterioso, quarter = 40
    • V –  Agitato, quarter = 160
  • Difficulty Level: advanced
  • Highest Position Reached: thumb
  • Techniques Employed: standard (bass, tenor, and treble clefs; harmonics, pizzicato, arco; sul tasto, ponticello; pitch bending, glassandi; rapidly changind meters)
  • Publisher: Hofmeister Musikverlag
  • Where to Purchase the Score: hofmeister-musikverlag.com
  • Cost of Score*: €34.80

Recording

You may request a recording by contacting Fabregas directly via email.

Program Notes

“Voices of the Rainforest for flute (alto flute), cello, and piano (2007) was written for the Meininger-Trio, a group based in Germany. The premiere took place on March 15, 2008, at the WDR Broadcasting Radio Station in Cologne, Germany, in the program titled Nachtmusik.

“Voices of the Rainforest is a loose representation of a day in the life of the rainforest in Papua New Guinea. This work came about as a result of my life-long fascination and love for nature and a request from Christiane Meininger. A recording of actual sounds of insects, barking frogs, birds, and the singing of natives of the Papua New Guinea rainforest was the final inspiration for this work.

“The late François Groben was the inspiration for the cello writing in this work and previous works written for the Meininger trio. After this work I have written more compositions for the cello, including solo works. I was born in Catalunya, the birthplace of Pau (Pablo) Casals who revolutionized cello playing in the 20th century. He rescued J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites from obscurity and elevated the cello to a premier solo instrument. For me, the cello also evokes the human voice and I find it extremelly suitable for human expression.” – Elisenda Fabregas

Elisenda Fabregas’s Other Works with a Prominent Cello Part

How to Follow, Support, and Contact Elisenda Fabregas

A Collaboration with the New York Women Composers (NYWC)

The NYWC series at the Cello Museum was created to showcase its members who have composed works for cello, informing cellists seeking new music to add to their repertoire, and helping listeners find new favorites. Many thanks to the NYWC for this wonderful collaboration.

Read other installments in the series here.

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*Prices are accurate at the time of article publication, but the Cello Museum cannot take responsibility for subsequent price changes.

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Author

Curator, Brenda Neece Author

Cello Museum founder and curator, Dr. Brenda Neece is a cellist and a researcher specializing in the history of the cello. Before starting The Cello Museum in 2019, she worked as a freelancer and served for just over a decade as a musical instrument museum curator. Her major cello teachers were Rochelle Kidd, Fred Raimi, Martha Gerschefski, and William Pleeth. Her academic mentors were Jon Finson, Marilyn Gombosi, Hélène La Rue, Ferdinand J. de Hen, and Jeremy Montagu.