A Pandemic Daydream Turned Celebration
Renée Chan, MBA ’05, commissioned a sweeping musical tribute to architect Antoni Gaudí to mark the completion of his Sagrada Família basilica.
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- April 08, 2026
- Media, Entertainment, and Sports
During the darkest days of the pandemic, cocooned in our homes, many of us dreamed about going out to dinner or catching some live music in a crowded pub. Renée Chan, MBA ’05, dreamed bigger.
In 2020, Chan’s husband, Patrick Mitchell, read an article about the impending completion of the Sagrada Família, the unfinished Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona designed by famed architect Antoni Gaudí. Construction began on the now-iconic structure, a blend of art nouveau and Gothic revival styles, in 1882. According to the article, the project’s final component, the 564-foot Tower of Jesus, was on track to be finished in 2026—100 years after Gaudí’s death.
Chan and Mitchell had spent their honeymoon in Barcelona in 2005 and had an affinity for the place and its culture.
“We started talking,” Chan recalls. “I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do a big international concert, where people could be together and celebrate with music?’”
At the time, still six years before what came to be known as the Year of Gaudí, the couple hadn’t heard of any events planned to mark the occasion. Since then, the number of celebrations across Barcelona and the rest of Spain has mushroomed—events started last October and are set to continue through 2026. Some 60 events are scheduled at the Sagrada Família alone, including a June 10 mass to mark the anniversary of Gaudí’s death as well as concerts and exhibitions organized by the Gaudí Council, part of the Catalan Ministry of Culture. In 2024, more than 4 million people visited the cathedral; the anniversary events are expected to draw many more to the historic site.
Dreaming big and working beyond her comfort zone are nothing new to Chan. After graduating from Booth, she took on strategy consulting at IBM and Fidelity Investments, work that prepared her to “get smart quickly” on topics about which she knew little. Neither Chan nor Mitchell has an arts background, but they leveraged their networking skills to make some Gaudí magic.
“It makes you reflect on the amazing abilities of humans. It’s a celebration of humans, of beauty, of what we can do.”
— Renée Chan
The seed of an idea over a glass of wine during COVID-19 lockdown at Chan and Mitchell’s home in Boston began to blossom, nurtured by several strokes of good fortune.
The couple’s two young children had taken piano lessons from Olivia Pérez-Collellmir, a composer and professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston who hails from Barcelona. (In an uncanny twist, Pérez-Collellmir’s father was an architect—and he was baptized in the Sagrada Família.) Knowing that Pérez-Collellmir was steeped in the musical and cultural traditions of the city, Chan and Mitchell asked her to compose awork of music to mark the occasion.
Pérez-Collellmir jumped at the opportunity and made clear from the outset: It couldn’t be an understated work. To truly celebrate Gaudí and his legacy would require a symphony orchestra and a choir.
Next, the couple turned to securing venue and a conductor. In November 2022, Chan, Mitchell, and Pérez-Collellmir traveled to Philadelphia for a performance by internationally celebrated conductor Marin Alsop. “We met with her backstage afterward,” Chan says. “When we described the project, Marin said, ‘This is amazing. I love Gaudí. I love Barcelona.’” Eager to support the project, Alsop signed on right on the spot.
Thus was born “Seven Dreams of Gaudí,” a sweeping musical tribute to the architectural master, which is scheduled to be performed in Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana on June 10. Seven movements, each reflecting a significant moment in Gaudí’s artistic and personal journey, will be brought to life by 200 musicians from the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra and three choirs from the Orfeó Català, a Barcelona choral society.
Work began on the basilica in 1882.
A young Antoni Gaudí, circa 1878.
The intricate Nativity Facade on the east side of the basilica.
A Gaudí–designed hyperboloid bell.
The Orfeó Català, who will perform “Seven Dreams of Gaudí.”
Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, where “Seven Dreams of Gaudí” will be performed.
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In 2023, Chan and her family moved to Barcelona to be closer to the project and to live in a city they love. Mitchell, who has continued in his role as a partner at Goodwin Procter, a global law firm, travels back and forth between Boston and Barcelona.
Chan’s musical tastes lean more toward jazz and pop than classical, she says, but the composition is “very accessible.” The performance includes young vocal soloists representing Gaudí’s early years. Concertgoers will get to hear for the first time the hyperboloid bells Gaudí designed for the Sagrada Família but which were never completed because their prototypes were lost during the Spanish Civil War.
The bells came about in another stroke of luck. Chan reached out to Galdric Santana, director of the Gaudí Chair at Polytechnic University of Catalonia, to work as a consultant on the project. Santana gave an enthusiastic yes—and said he was also a musician and had been at work casting the tubular bells designed by Gaudí. (Santana was later named codirector of the Year of Gaudí.) The bells will sound during the finale of “Seven Dreams of Gaudí.”
“The hope is that it’s really going to be something uplifting,” Chan says. “It makes you reflect on the amazing abilities of humans. It’s a celebration of humans, of beauty, of what we can do.”