NEW TO YOUTUBE | VC Young Artist Cellist Gabriel Martins Arranges Bach's Chaconne For Cello 

“The Chaconne itself is a monumental, transcendent experience, and for me this arrangement was a deeply introspective and soul-searching endeavor”

For VC Young Artist Gabriel Martins, Bach’s music is what he truly feels connected to and is what allows him to hold onto his musical voice.

“I have recently been working on arrangements of all of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo,” Martins told The Violin Channel. “Earlier this year I completed the G minor Sonata, and the Chaconne was my summer project.”

“Although I would have liked to keep it in its original key for tone color reasons, I decided it was more natural to keep Bach’s use of the open strings and resonance of the instrument, which meant transposing it down to G minor for cello,” he explained.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH | PARTITA NO. 2 IN D MINOR, BWV 1004 | V. CHACONNE | ARRANGED FOR CELLO BY GABRIEL MARTINS | GABRIEL MARTINS | 2021

After his first-prize winning performance at the 2020 Sphinx Competition, he will be engaging in several upcoming projects including recording the complete Beethoven and Brahms works for cello and piano with pianist Kati Gleiser at the Lakes Area Music Festival. 

He will be debuting with the Allentown, Arkansas, Elgin, Pacific, and Phoenix Symphonies — and performing a duo tour with VC Young Artist Violinist Geneva Lewis.

This arrangement is dedicated to Lewis: “Geneva, my partner, has given me the strength, resilience, love, and support to find my way through many turbulent navigations of music and of life,” Martins said. “The product of this arrangement and recording is as much to her credit as they are to mine.”