{"id":3733,"date":"2025-07-08T17:02:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/cellist-irene-cancer-navarro-its-a-dream-to-play-at-the-concertgebouw\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:02:41","slug":"cellist-irene-cancer-navarro-its-a-dream-to-play-at-the-concertgebouw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/cellist-irene-cancer-navarro-its-a-dream-to-play-at-the-concertgebouw\/","title":{"rendered":"Cellist Irene Cancer Navarro: “It’s a dream to play at the Concertgebouw”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cello crossed her path more or less by accident. The instrument was chosen for her by a teacher. Irene never dared to dream that it would turn out so well when she first held the cello at the age of eight. In September, she will be performing with CineMusic at the Concertgebouw.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is your role within CineMusic?<\/h6>\n

\u201cI play the cello and currently I am the principal cellist. That means I lead the cello section. Together with the double bass players, we form the foundation of the string section.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you end up at CineMusic?<\/h6>\n

\u201cJust after I finished my master’s degree, I saw that CineMusic was looking for musicians; that was three years ago now. I responded immediately. I really wanted to play in an orchestra. And the fact that this orchestra also plays film music made it extra fun, because I love that. The first year we gave about ten concerts in churches. Now we’ve been playing in beautiful theaters for two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

When did you start music lessons?<\/h6>\n

\u201cI was eight years old when I started, and yes, I started straight away with the cello. That’s a funny story. In Spain, where I’m from, you can go to a kind of conservatory from primary school age. At the school I went to, you couldn’t choose which instrument you wanted to play yourself. When you’re a child, you only know instruments like the trumpet, violin, and piano, and then everyone would choose those. Every child had to do a kind of test, and based on that, the teacher placed you in a certain group. Eventually, your name was called along with the instrument that suited you, and then you had to say yourself whether you wanted to learn to play it or not. I didn’t even know what a cello was, but I just really wanted to make music, so I said yes. Afterwards, I asked my mother what kind of instrument it was. Looking back, it was pure luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quite a difficult instrument to learn to play\u2026<\/h6>\n

\u201cI liked it immediately. I think the cello is a very easy instrument to love because it sounds so beautiful. The thing with string instruments is that it takes a long time before you can play them well. But because I was only eight, I never found it frustrating if it didn’t sound good in those first few years. For me, the frustration came later, when I discovered that it’s never finished. There is always room for improvement. No matter how good you get, there is no point where you say: “I’m just perfect, I can play everything.”<\/p>\n

Tell us about your education?<\/h6>\n

\u201cI did my bachelor’s in music in Spain. That took four years. In my fourth year, I did a master’s in Dublin, Ireland. I lived there for about a year. Then COVID happened. During COVID, I auditioned for the program in Utrecht\u2014that was via video, of course, because everyone was at home. After that, I came here and did a two-year master’s at the HKU in Utrecht. And now I’m a freelancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did you decide to stay in the Netherlands after your studies?<\/h6>\n

\u201cI’m from a small village in Spain myself, and there isn’t much orchestral work to be found there. I could have gone to Madrid, of course, but to be honest, I was just very happy here. I love the Netherlands and life here.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you like most about CineMusic?<\/h6>\n

\u201cThe people I work with are very nice. And I really love film music. There are pieces I truly love, even if I have to play them thirty times. I’m a fan of children’s film music myself. For example, the music from How to Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda. Those also have great cello solos. But I would love most of all to play Spirit again. When I was young, that was my favorite movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, you’ll be at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with CineMusic. Have you played there before?<\/h6>\n

\u201cOnly in the small hall, with a piano quintet. We played Shostakovich then. It’s a dream to play in the main hall soon. It’s the hall of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the best orchestras in the world. It’s like playing where your idols play. The building is beautiful, of course, but that’s less important than the sound in the hall\u2014that’s just magical. It’s as if the music embraces you.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything were possible, what else would you like to achieve with CineMusic?<\/h6>\n

\u201cThen I would want us to have many more strings. I really enjoy playing with more people in the string section. That would be great growth. And then, of course, there are films I would like to play. Cinema Paradiso, for example\u2014that music is by Ennio Morricone, truly beautiful. But The Little Mermaid and Mamma Mia are also on my wish list.\u201d<\/p>\n

And apart from CineMusic, what are your own dreams for the future?<\/h6>\n

\u201cMy main goal or dream would be to have a permanent job in a professional orchestra, because I love playing in a group.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cello crossed her path more or less by accident. The instrument was chosen for her by a teacher. Irene never dared to dream that it would turn out so well when she first held the cello at the age of eight. In September, she will be performing with CineMusic at the Concertgebouw. What is...","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[283,282],"class_list":["post-3733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tag-cello","tag-irene-cancer-navarro"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3733"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3854,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3733\/revisions\/3854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemusic.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}