Imagine two of the most difficult tasks one can think of, things that require years of intense training and repetition. Then, fathom the thought that these two endeavors need to be combined into one painstakingly difficult performance. Finally, add in expert-level storytelling that brings universal meaning to these tasks. This is difficult to even think about, let alone do, which is what makes one upcoming performance even more captivating.
On April 27 at the Highways Performance Space, two top-notch entertainment forms will be merged into one, as Cellista will be performing Élégie, what she calls a “stage poem” written for Aerial Cello. The phrase is exactly what it means, as Cellista will be hoisted into the air in a static trapeze setting, all while playing her own cello composition. The wholly unique experience combines the Colorado-raised, now Los Angeles-based artist’s two loves, a musical journey she’s been on her whole life merged with trapeze training received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel like this is my first step into doing more work like this, and I’m so excited,” Cellista said. “It’s a chance to develop an idea in a way that feels really challenging and exciting and really rewarding as well.”
Feeling like the cello “picked” her during adolescence, Cellista had been classically trained with the instrument, but didn’t consider composition until a friend gifted her a loop station where she did “live scoring” of her own performances. After what she called “messing around” with composition, she didn’t consider herself a true composer until being listed as such during a 2021 performance at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
Since that time, she has been a sought-after collaborator, working with the likes of Grammy-nominated artist Tanya Donelly, “American Pie” songwriter Don McLean and R&B legends Tony! Toni! Toné!. Recently, her compositions aided the true-crime reality show “The Real Murders of Orange County.”
Despite a thriving career, however, the pandemic was a trying time for Cellista and her peers, saying she lost not only her stable gigs, but also lost a part of herself.
“It was very hard to see myself as a cellist, because up until that point, I very proudly proclaimed myself as a working musician … this isn’t a story unique to me, but we lost a lot, and I think in that loss of work, we lost identity, and that was tough,” she said. “But what I think it did at some point for me is it enabled me to try out new things.”
Instead of figuring out how to bake sourdough bread or other popular pandemic actions, Cellista brought her newfound love of fitness to a new level, beginning to soar with static trapeze classes. Taking to the air was something she had admired accompanying circus performers during various festivals, enjoying the aerial art’s ability to be a “very malleable object” when it came to storytelling.
“It feels like it [was] almost kind of similar to when the cello found me, I [think] static trapeze found me, and it was just for myself as a kind of multi-disciplinary artist, it was another way to express stories,” she added.
Becoming confident in her aerial abilities, Cellista began incorporating trapeze into the story of Élégie, which conveys themes of otherness and exile through a shapeshifting bird character. During the show, the audience will see her playing her cello 15 feet in the air while a live film accompaniment plays alongside her.
The physical training has been “pretty intense,” she noted, putting in between 15-20 hours a week of workouts and trapeze practice, including at least 100 push-ups each day to build strength. Alongside building her physical form, she has been biding her time developing a “vocabulary” of melding trapeze with cello performance.
“It was a matter of figuring out the logistics of getting a 20-pound instrument up to the top of the trapeze and then being able to find positions that are comfortable enough to play [in],” Cellista said. “It was a lot of work.”
Despite all the tribulations that come with combining two incredibly difficult forms of art, she feels accomplished with bringing the unique show experience to Santa Monica.
“It’s been challenging in terms of storytelling, it’s been challenging in terms of the physical aspect, it’s been challenging in terms of the musical aspect, [but] I feel really nourished with this project on all ends,” she added. “I’m having to work real hard, but I just [feel] the fruits of all that labor.”
Prologue performances in the show will be seen from Christos Tejada, Hilary Whitmore, Ron Athey and The Zero Collective. For more information and to purchase tickets for the April 27 show, visit highwaysperformance.org