Yo-Yo Ma's new jobby job

I've always enjoyed Classical music; my mom is a HUGE Pavarotti fan (the woman cried for days when he died) and I was exposed to Classical music and Opera from an early age. When I was in college pursuing a degree in Music Education, part of completing my four semesters of a required Music History class was field trips to different cultural events. Mostly, they were concerts of Classical music performed by the NY Philharmonic. But there were some amazingly wonderful bright spots at some of those performances. One of them, was Yo-Yo Ma.

I have no idea how the Music Department arranged to get us tickets; probably the same way they got tickets for us to see Pavarotti perform in "Tosca" at the Metropolitan Opera House in NYC. Maybe they begged for them, maybe they plied the ticket agents with alcohol and took embarrassing pictures of them ; all I know is that I got to see some of the greats thanks to that college (Wagner College, Staten Island, NY) and I am eternally greatful. But any way....I still remember being mesmerized by the sounds he made with his cello. I sat practically motionless in my seat, listening to every note he played. I wasn't one to always be fully engaged in the orchestral performances. If there wasn't a singer to listen to, I wasn't all that interested. But there was something about the way that he played that just captivated me and I couldn't help but take in every note he played.

Yo-Yo Ma is one of the greats. If you have NO idea who in the heck I am talking about, he is one of the best cellist of our time. Quite possibly of all time. The emotion that he puts into his playing is amazing.....every note comes across with such technical perfection, but not without sacrificing the grace and beauty that is present in the music itself. His holiday CD, "Yo-Yo Ma & Friends, Songs of Peace and Joy" has been nominated for two Grammys. Not only is he a talented musician, but he is also deeply committed to education and community outreach programs that bring children and young adults closer to the music that he makes. He has been seen on Sesame Street and Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood and he's developed family concerts with many organizations, including a series that was performed at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

He was recently named the Creative Consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His main role in this position will be to bring the Symphony's music to the city itself, in it's community centers and it's juvenile detention centers. The organization wants to encourage the young artists in the community and to engage them in making music. This is a great effort on their part to include the younger members of their city into an organization that, quite honestly, is usually seen as "high-brow". Growing up, especially in the city or inner-city, your average everyday family isn't buying tickets to the Symphony. I always thought the only people that went to their concerts were the rich; the ladies with their fur coats, the gentlemen in their tuxedos. But this isn't necessarily the case. Having attended quite a few Philharmonic performances in NYC, I can say that all walks of life attend their concerts and I would think that this is the case across the country at performances by other orchestras. Getting the youth of Chicago involved is a great idea; it can build up their self-esteem by showing them different avenues that are available for their creativity, and it can also open up a whole new world of music that they might not have been exposed to before.

Yo-Yo Ma will also be involved in programs aimed to engage college-aged and pre-college aged students, as well as arts programs geared towards the very young (ages 3-5). As a teenager who LOVED to learn new music, a program like this would have been invaluable to me. I knew fairly early on in my education that I wanted to go to school for Music Education; but it wasn't until I reached the college level that I really started to learn about the foundations of music. I knew it was there from hearing Pavarotti and Domingo sing off of scratchy records that my mom played on Sunday afternoons; but I didn't have a true appreciation of where it came from, let alone what it sounded like live, until I was in my early 20's. Who knows, maybe earlier exposure would have encouraged me to keep playing the flute or to take piano lessons a little more seriously.

The full article that I referred to earlier can be found through this link.

To learn more about Yo-Yo Ma and his music, his website is www.yo-yoma.com. His music can be heard on the soundtrack for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", as well as in many videoed performances such as the ones shown on the Yahoo Music site.