Tribute Concert to Marcel Cellier

This concert pays tribute to the visionary work of this couple. It brings together Alexandre Cellier, their son, a multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer who has been immersed in this musical world since childhood, and Ion Miu, the undisputed master of the Romanian cimbalom, whose dazzling virtuosity makes him one of the greatest performers on this instrument. Ion has also been a friend of the family since his first tour with Romanian virtuosos organised by Marcel in 1972. He was 17 years old at the time.

Marcel Cellier
Marcel Cellier (1925-2013), Swiss ethnomusicologist, musician and producer, and his wife Catherine Cellier (1931-2023), artist and photographer, devoted their lives to discovering and sharing the music of Eastern Europe. From the 1950s onwards, the couple travelled throughout Romania and Bulgaria, recording voices, instruments and folk traditions. Marcel shared these treasures on the radio in his programme De la Mer Noire à la Baltique (From the Black Sea to the Baltic), and discovered Gheorghe Zamfir, a young Romanian pan flute player of exceptional talent, with whom he recorded several successful albums. In 1975, he released the first album by a female vocal group that would become legendary, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, whose worldwide success was crowned with a Grammy Award in 1989.