What would Gaudí sound like?

In this episode of Resonances: Where Music, Health, and Identity Meet, Patricia Caicedo speaks with Catalan composer Olivia Pérez-Collellmir about Seven Dreams of Gaudí, a monumental new symphonic choral work created to commemorate the centennial of the death of Antoni Gaudí.

Premiering on June 10, 2026, at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the work brings together more than 200 musicians, including the Orfeó Català, soprano Núria Rial, and the Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of renowned conductor Marin Alsop. With a libretto by acclaimed Catalan poet Anna Gual, Seven Dreams of Gaudí explores seven dimensions of Gaudí's inner world: Nature, The Workshop, Duality, Grief, The Uprising, Prayer, and The Basilica.

In this conversation, Patricia and Olivia discuss the challenge of translating architecture into music, Gaudí's enduring influence on Barcelona and the world, the relationship between nature, spirituality, and artistic creation, and the role of imagination in both architecture and composition. Olivia also shares insights into the creative process behind the work, her collaboration with Anna Gual, and the significance of presenting the premiere during a year in which Barcelona celebrates both the Gaudí centennial and its designation as a World Capital of Architecture.

The episode explores how Gaudí's vision continues to inspire artists across disciplines and asks a fascinating question: If architecture can shape the way we see the world, can music help us hear it differently?

About the Guest

Olivia Pérez-Collellmir is a Catalan composer, pianist, and educator based in Boston, where she serves on the faculty of Berklee College of Music. Her work spans orchestral, chamber, vocal, and interdisciplinary projects, often drawing inspiration from literature, visual arts, history, and cultural identity.

Topics Discussed

• Antoni Gaudí and his artistic legacy
• The centennial of Gaudí's death
• Seven Dreams of Gaudí
• Architecture and music
• Creativity and imagination
• Nature as artistic inspiration
• Spirituality in art
• Contemporary classical composition
• Catalan culture and identity
• Barcelona as World Capital of Architecture
• The relationship between place, memory, and artistic creation

What happens when rhythm enters the body before thought? In this episode of Resonances, Patricia Caicedo explores how music, rhythm, movement, and the brain are connected, drawing from her book We Are What We Listen To: The Impact of Music on Individual and Social Health.

From rhythmic entrainment and dance to neuroplasticity, embodied cognition, pleasure, memory, and Parkinson’s disease, this episode shows how music is not only something we hear, but something the body processes, responds to, and carries. Rhythm organizes movement, activates attention, shapes emotional experience, and reveals the deep relationship between music, health, and identity.

This episode also connects with the 2026 Barcelona Festival of Song, a research-based festival dedicated to Latin American and Iberian art song. This year, the festival presents seven concerts in Barcelona, with four supporting Parkinson’s research and care through IDIBAPS at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the Associació Catalana per al Parkinson.

Listen, move, share the episode, and join us in Barcelona: barcelonafestivalofsong.com.

What if your brain is shaped not only by what you think, but by what you listen to?

In this episode of Resonances, Patricia Caicedo—singer, musicologist, and physician—explores how music is processed in the brain and how it actively shapes neural structure, emotional patterns, and identity over time.

Drawing from neuroscience, clinical observation, and musical practice, this episode examines how listening engages distributed brain networks, how rhythm activates motor systems, why musical memory remains accessible in neurodegenerative conditions, and how performance integrates sensory, motor, and cognitive processes in real time.

Through clear examples—including the complex neural activity involved in a pianist’s performance—this episode presents music not as a passive experience, but as a form of neuroplastic training that supports cognitive resilience.

Music is not simply something we hear.

It is something that organizes how we feel, remember, and become.