A Quintus cello in my mailbox...

Since I understood that music would be an important part of my life, all long travels projects I imagined in front of a world atlas have always been assassinated by the thought that I couldn't travel for a long time without a cello: the daily practice of an instrument is as important for a musician as the diet for a ballet dancer. Consequently, I thought that if I stopped this practice for a complete year, it would have the same kind of result than if the ballet dancer decided to work for a year in a chocolate shop in Belgium! It seemed also that I could not carry my cello all over the world without damaging it.

But I wanted to travel... I tried thus to find a way to fix the cello on a bicycle; I thought rather to travel without cello but with the help of numerous cellists, who would let me touch their instrument; I even had the idea of travelling without cello (taking the risk), but after having recorded as much as possible in order to have an archive... When the present project arised, I decided this time to have build by a violin-maker a very strong cello, which would not suffer from nails or glue's repairs, an instrument which would probably be used at return to grill the meet on the barbecue...

That was my last idea. Then I met Quintus on Internet. Quintus is an American Society which build string instruments in carbon fiber. I emailed them to ask if this kind of instrument could be helpfull for me: I needed something which could resist temperature and humidity changes, which could resist to chocs, and should be as light as possible. Quintus answered to me, and always answered very politely and precisely. They made me feel curious to try an instrument. I thought that an instrument in carbon fiber would sound terribly bad but, at least, I could bring with me a "kind of cello" and practice every day. Since Quintus liked the idea of my travel, they decided to send me a cello by mail, in a huge carton box (proof that they trusted the carbon fiber solidity!). They wrote me that they let me use the instrument for an indetermined period of time.

I opened the box: the instrument was still in tune. I began to play and understood only after a few notes that the cello was not bad at all, but was surprisingly rather very good and enjoyable. I tried the Prelude from the Bach first cello solo Suite, and the resonance I could obtain in the basses pleased me a lot. The following days, I tested the beautiful black cello in chamber music, asking for my partners opinions. They were unanimous: it was not possible to discover by ear that the black cello was not a good old wood instrument.

The quality of this black instrument gives me the opportunity while travelling to play for people too. The idea of my project "Tout un monde lointain..." evolved because of this important new issue: I can perform as a classical musician in cultural places (which has a kind of tour character), but also, if opportunities happen, I can have contact with people without words and, why not, exchange ideas or inspiration with musicians whose I don't know the music and to whom Bach or Kodaly is a stranger?

I am thus grateful to QUINTUS: the beauty of their decision will create unforgettable experiences. I told them I will offer them the wonderful pictures that Nathalie will take of the Quintus Black Carbon Fiber cello, travelling in the most beautiful and confined places of the Silk Road.