[After much of the country closed down, esteemed cellist Yo-Yo Ma put out a call for artists, especially musicians, to take up a role in the struggle against the pandemic and its consequences. He especially focused on the issues of raising the spirits of Americans who were struggling under the health threat and the psychological burdens of being confined to their homes.
[On
13 March, the day after theaters and other entertainment venues in New York City
were closed down, Ma took to social media with the mission: to share music that
gives him comfort. This gave birth to
the project he dubbed “Songs of Comfort.”
Over the weeks and months that followed, PBS
NewsHour aired several reports on this
effort, including interviews with Ma.
[I’ve
collected these segments between 18 March and 21 July and am running them together
on Rick On Theater in an effort to disseminate Ma’s worthy message.]
“YO-YO MA ON
ENCOURAGING ‘SONGS OF COMFORT’ AMID GLOBAL CRISIS”
by Jeffrey Brown
[This
interview of the cellist by arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown aired on PBS
NewsHour on Wednesday evening, 18 March 2020. It initiated the discussion of Ma’s project
on NewsHour as part of the program’s Canvas
segment, its ongoing coverage of arts and culture.]
Yo-Yo Ma, one of the world’s most renowned
and beloved musicians, is trying to provide comfort in this time of crisis. Ma
has been posting videos of himself performing short pieces and encouraging
other musicians -- of all levels -- around the world to join him in offering “Songs
of Comfort.” Ma joins Jeffrey Brown to discuss the project and play [Antonín] Dvorak.
Judy Woodruff: At a time of national and, indeed, global trauma, a leading artist offers
us songs of comfort.
Jeffrey Brown has
that for our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.
Jeffrey Brown: He is one of the world’s most renowned and beloved musicians, and now he
is reaching out in a new way in this current crisis.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
recently began posting videos of himself performing short pieces and songs that
can speak to those most in need and to all of us.
Yo-Yo Ma joins me
from his home in Massachusetts by Skype.
And, Yo-Yo, it’s
nice to talk to you. Here we are. You are stuck at home like most of us, but
you’re still playing. Tell us about this idea that you have, the project called
Songs of Comfort.
Yo-Yo Ma: Well,
this idea came by pretty much spontaneously.
I was in the office
one day, and we were talking and said, you know, let’s do something, because
let’s do something in this time that actually serves people’s needs.
And we thought that,
somehow, music always has been comforting to me, this is what I do, and this is
the best that I can offer. And I know many people are doing everything they can
from what they know. And this is just something that I can do.
Jeffrey Brown: This is what you do.
I mean, in what
sense — what’s your sense of what music or art can do? I mean, we talk about
this all the time. People have real needs. We have just had a whole program
talking about hospitals and medical needs and food and money, of course. What
can music and art do?
Yo-Yo Ma: Well,
I can tell you one thing.
When I was 19, I had
a teacher who said, Yo-Yo, you haven’t found your voice.
And I said, OK. And
so I kept looking for my voice. And I think my voice is in finding the needs of
others and then representing them. And that’s — and so, everywhere I go, it’s
always about finding what people are thinking, feeling, how they think about
themselves in the world.
And if I can find
something that they need, and if I can actually offer a little bit of something
that is comforting, then that’s how I would define my job.
Jeffrey Brown: So here you are now playing and posting pieces, but it’s more than that,
right? You want others to join in, to send in their own songs, and it doesn’t
even have to be music.
Tell us about what
you’re hoping will happen.
Yo-Yo Ma: Well,
you know, what’s amazing is that what’s already happened is that, since just a
couple of days ago, there are people who have posted from the Mayo Clinic. Two
doctors have actually sung something.
The lead singer from
a rock band, Mashrou Leila in Lebanon, actually put in a song. And two women
from Ireland and Germany sang something on in sync, on — in troubled times.
And so the idea is
music is for everyone. It’s not the practitioners doing music, but it’s
something that does something for us. Now, a virus is something that travels
globally. It knows no borders, no walls, no boundaries.
And music is
something that actually looks into the inside, and that also knows [no]
boundaries. And if we can actually express what is on our insides and show
that, then this is the beginning of a deeper understanding of one another.
Jeffrey Brown: We want to join you, your organization. We at the “NewsHour” want to join
and encourage people to send in their own videos to #SongsofComfort, post them
on Twitter, or Instagram, Facebook, wherever.
And then what are we
collecting? What are you hoping that we get?
Yo-Yo Ma: We’re
collecting what is personal, what is true, what is trustworthy, what is
community, because community is nothing, except what is based on trust.
And when you say
something in music, it better be true, because, otherwise, it doesn’t
communicate.
Jeffrey Brown: All right, so we’re going to do this together.
And I want to tell
our audience, please post some videos, and we here at the “NewsHour,” we’re
going to post — update this project as we can on digital and broadcast, Canvas,
for our arts coverage as well, joining Yo-Yo Ma in this.
And I want to say
thank you to you for doing this. And it’s a pleasure to be part of it with you.
And, before we go,
Yo-Yo Ma plays Dvorak for us.
(MUSIC)
Jeffrey Brown: #SongsofComfort.
Yo-Yo Ma, thank you
very much.
Yo-Yo Ma: Thank
you so much, Jeffrey.
Judy Woodruff: Thank you, Yo-Yo Ma.
I can’t imagine
anything more welcome at a time like this.
And, as Jeff pointed
out, we hope that, if you have art to share, you will join us. Upload your
videos to Twitter, to Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #SongsofComfort.
We will be watching,
and we may use them in the future on air and online at PBS.org/NewsHour.
[The
musical portions of this broadcast can be heard on the video of the segment on
the NewsHour website
at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/yo-yo-ma-on-encouraging-songs-of-comfort-amid-global-crisis. Other sources include YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczq8RjxA9M.]
* *
* *
“YO-YO MA CALLS
FOR #SONGSOFCOMFORT AMID PANDEMIC. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE EFFORT”
by Joshua Barajas
[Joshua Barajas’s report
below was aired on PBS NewsHour’s Canvas arts and culture segment on Tuesday evening, 24 March 2020.]
Yo-Yo Ma has brought
joy to listeners for decades with his virtuosic musicianship. Now, he is using
his music to offer some comfort to a global audience in the midst of a pandemic
that has sparked widespread anxiety and pain.
He started posting
videos of himself performing what he dubbed #SongsOfComfort on social media.
Last week, he played a short piece — Antonín Dvořák’s “Going Home” — via Skype
for the PBS NewsHour.
He encouraged people
to create and share their own art from home during this time, and use the
#SongsOfComfort hashtag on different social media platforms to showcase those
creations.
Some songwriting
legends have joined the chorus. James Taylor shared a clip of himself
performing his 1977 song “Secret O’ Life” to his Instagram account, saying it’s
a tune to “lift our spirits during challenging times.” Carole King tweeted a
demo version of “Tapestry” cut “Way Over Yonder.” In their at-home live stream
concert last week, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls cited Yo-Yo Ma’s project — and
shouted out the PBS NewsHour — before playing “Galileo.”
Hamed Sinno, lead
singer of rock band Mashrou’ Leila, posted a series of Instagram videos of him
singing “Not While I’m Around,” from Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical “Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” saying that the “lyrics make me warm
inside.”
“Being forced to
employ social distancing has really made me think about the value of community,”
Sinno said in the Instagram caption. “Hoping you’re all staying sane and
healthy, and doing whatever you can to protect the vulnerable communities
around you.”
*
* * *
“YO-YO MA’S MUSICAL EFFORT TO SHARE
#SONGSOFCOMFORT AMID CORONAVIRUS”
by Jeffrey Brown, Anne Azzi Davenport. and
Joshua Barajas
[The following brief PBS NewsHour report on some of the responses to Yo-Yo Ma’s appeal was broadcast
on Wednesday night, 25 March 2020.[
Last week, the
NewsHour joined master cellist Yo-Yo Ma in asking the public to join the
#SongsOfComfort effort and contribute music both old and new. Chief arts
correspondent Jeffrey Brown shares some of what we have received here – moments
of respite and zen in the age of coronavirus. You can post your own offering on
social media platforms using the hashtag #SongsOfComfort.
Jeffrey Brown: Yo-Yo Ma began his
#SongsofComfort project with a performance of his own, and an appeal to our
audience.
Yo-Yo Ma: We’re collecting
what is personal, what is true, what is trustworthy, what is community, because
community is nothing, except what is based on trust.
Jeffrey Brown: People of all kinds
have responded, Paul Simon with his classic [“American Tune,”] Hamed Sinno,
lead singer of the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila. The famed folk rock duo the
Indigo Girls also answered the call [‘Galileo”].
And members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra found a creative way to
perform while keeping social distance.
Most of all, ordinary people all around the country and the world created
their own musical moments. Outside Chicago, a woman played for her neighbors,
as is happening more and more.
In Omaha, Nebraska, 9-year-old Annabel Blake, her father and a family
friend performed a traditional Irish folk song.
A man played a song for his granddaughters, wanting them, as he wrote, to
feel good about themselves. And they did.
Dira Sugandi was joyful in Indonesia.
Two friends, one in Ireland the other in Germany, harmonized on a Beatles
song. And from Copenhagen, pianist Niels Lan Doky shared jazz.
Perhaps most fitting and hopeful for the times, two Mayo Clinic doctors
in a video posted by a new fan.
Just a few of the songs now being shared.
For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown.
* *
* *
“HOW YO-YO MA’S ‘SONGS OF
COMFORT’ ARE INSPIRING MUSICAL COLLABORATION”
by Jeffrey Brown and Anne
Azzi Davenport
[This PBS NewsHour report from Jeffrey Brown, part of Canvas,
the NewsHour’s arts and culture series, was broadcast on
Wednesday evening, 13 May 2020.]
The ‘Songs of Comfort’ project world-renowned
cellist Yo-Yo Ma launched on social media continues to expand in new
directions. Jeffrey Brown looks at the growing collaboration in these mini
performances, as tough times bring people together through music -- and
technology. It’s part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.
Judy Woodruff: Finally tonight, our occasional look at the Songs of Comfort project that
world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma launched on social media.
Jeffrey Brown looks
at the growing collaboration in these mini-performances, as tough times bring people
together through music and technology.
It’s part of our
ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.
Jeffrey Brown: In a time of isolation, a desire to connect through music.
As the psychology of
pandemic changes through the weeks, you can see that play out in the
#SongsofComfort project through more and more collaborations.
That includes the
man who started it all, Yo-Yo Ma, who recorded a distanced duet with celebrated
West African singer Angelique Kidjo, and another with Syrian-born clarinetist
Kinan Azmeh.
The urge to merge is
often a family affair, as with this young mother and father in their Berlin,
Germany, living room, their new baby adding a little percussion.
In Arizona, six
women family members put the ’70s song “I’d Like to Teach the World [to Sing”] to
multistringed accompaniment, joined by the whistling of the person capturing it
all on camera.
And a violinist with
the Washington, D.C.-area National Philharmonic sat down with her
guitar-playing son for a piece by Astor Piazzolla.
There are also more
elaborate cross-genre collaborations, a delightful Bach to the Barre breakfast
scene created by musicians from the Toronto Symphony and dancers with the
Canadian National Ballet, plus two children, who performed their roles to
perfection.
Much older children
at Potomac, Maryland’s St. Andrews Episcopal School sang, “Oh happy Day,”
joined by alumni and faculty. And 24 student cellists from around the world
managed to get together for a performance of [Camille] Saint-Saëns “The Swan.”
In Houston, members
of the symphony, used to playing together on stage, created a virtual quartet.
And while it can be a lonely time for many, technology allows another kind of
quartet, all the parts performed by one individual.
Songs played alone,
songs played together. And, as we saw in that Berlin living room, some things
don’t change, the desire to share and maybe inspire the next generation.
For the “PBS
NewsHour,” I’m Jeffrey Brown.
Judy Woodruff: Songs of Comfort, that has to continue after this pandemic.
*
* * *
“YO-YO MA’S
HEARTFELT CALL TO ACTION TO ARTISTS DURING THE PANDEMIC”
by Isabelle Di Rita and Amna Nawaz
[PBS NewsHour aired the following Canvas arts and culture interview by correspondent Amna Nawaz with cellist
Yo-Yo Ma on Wednesday night, 29 July 2020.]
The coronavirus pandemic can make us feel small, or hopeless, but Yo-Yo Ma says artists, musicians especially, have a role in this crisis to help lift each other up.
Now is the best time to make a personal connection with an
audience of one, the cellist said, “because as a musician, your job — our job —
is to actually move one person at a time.”
Ma’s call to action for artists starts simple: Pick someone.
Record yourself performing a song for them or making whatever art you’d like.
Add a personal message. Hit send.
During this time of crisis, Ma has been providing solace
through his #SongsOfComfort project, connecting people through music online.
Despite a global pandemic putting a damper on live music, theater, or any type
of performance, Ma believes it’s also a time when musicians, poets and painters
can reflect on why and for whom they make art. Part of building our collective
resilience in this crisis, Ma said, is “making sure that no matter what you do,
you’re trying to do something in the service of somebody else.”
Ma is also releasing new music — recorded pre-pandemic — at
a time when he and other musicians aren’t able to perform in front of a live
audience. (A Taylor Swift concert still provides a different experience than
listening to an album alone, Ma noted.) His new album, ”Not Our First Goat Rodeo,” is
a collaboration with Americana musicians Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer and Stuart
Duncan, nine years after the group recorded their first album together.
Ma spoke with the PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz about what it’s
like to release an album right now, the future of live performance in the COVID
era, and why he encourages anyone to write, make music or create art at this
time.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me a little bit about “Not Our First Goat Rodeo.”
You brought the band back together after nine years. Why now?
When we first got together, we were so excited to be able to
make music together in a way that is, in so many ways, ideal. Everybody has
great respect for one another. Their egos are checked at the door because it’s
total and creative fun. I think the musicians that I’m working with are some of
the greatest people I’ve ever met, in terms of not only technical virtuosic
ability, but head and heart. They’ve got both going so strong. Imagine working
with people with very strong egos who actually all have their egos in the right
place, not in front, and never picking on each other’s vulnerabilities, just
willing to try everything with the highest standard and laughing all the way.
So, nine years later, we’re saying it’s “not our first goat
rodeo,” meaning a sense of people coming together in a chaotic situation, but
then finding a way through. And that’s kind of how music is made: You put so
many jumbled thoughts, feelings and ideas together. I think we thought about
doing this right after the first time and it took nine years to get us back
together again, because everybody is so incredibly busy. But they nevertheless
made time to make this album.
What’s it been like to introduce new music to the world
at this time?
I think people are always thinking and doing things, whether
they’re physically together or not. Yes, our lives are on hold. I’m at home, I’m
with my wife every day. She looks at me in the morning, noon, night, sort of “still
the same guy there,” not going away. It’s kind of a blessing because life is
never like this. But we then use what’s available to us — zooming, making
music, and sending music around — because that’s one of the things people need, and I see that in the
next not-such-a-long-period of time, the idea of drive-in concerts. People
are experimenting with that idea.
I know there was a comedian who actually did stand-up comedy in New Jersey for a thousand cars.
Instead of applause, people just honked and flashed their lights because
stand-up comedians need an
audience, a live audience. The idea is we want to be together. We can
find ways to do it. Drive-ins are actually part of our culture. A friend of
mine, we’re thinking of going on flatbed trucks and going into communities and
trying things out. But it’s possible. And I think the four of us [for “Not Our
First Goat Rodeo”] will do live performances, or we might do things online. I
think whatever we do, the attempt will be made to reach out to people because
music is a service. I think we need it, we need each other. So if people want
it, we will be there in one form or another.
Whether it’s a giant concert hall or a small, more
intimate venue, do you as a performer miss being in front of people and
presenting them with that music and watching how they receive it?
Tell you the truth, I think that I’m so used to performing
in front of live audiences, but also so used to recording — and I think the two
are slightly different — but I have to say that being live allows us to use all
of our senses. So music is energy, it moves air molecules, and it touches our
skin — we see it. We feel it. So much of music is physical, but also ephemeral
— the sixth sense that we have about one another, the chemistry we feel for one
another. My wife always says if she feels I’m nervous, she immediately gets
nervous in the audience because she has that tactile reaction. And you go to a
Taylor Swift concert, and you see people just going crazy because she’s close
by, and that kind of chemistry is palpable. And that doesn’t happen virtually,
even though you get physically, in terms of sound, the same things, and you can
get a visual, but you can’t feel the atmosphere. And so, I think in that sense,
it’s like sports events. We’re going to see live sports events. But is it the
same as being in the stadium?
We should mention that over the summers you do perform
at Tanglewood in Western Massachusetts and all of those concerts series
have been moved online now.
Yes.
So for you to perform in this way, is there something
different that you do to prepare or the way that you present the music? I mean,
what is that experience like for you?
I think intention is everything. Again, we pick up not just
words from people or sounds from people, we pick up tiny little cues, you know,
body language. I’m sure you’re so aware of, as a person who is broadcasting,
what the effect of what you say or act or move has on the person that’s
listening to you. And I think I don’t do that very well, but I try to actually
focus as intensely as I can because these things — the whole idea of learning
technique for cellists like me — is to transcend it so that you don’t think
about technique. You’re thinking about, what is this person saying? What is the
meaning of what someone would say?
Long term, are you worried about a decline in support for
the arts? At a time when a lot of people’s priorities are shifting to much more
immediate needs, right? Especially at this time, we’ve seen efforts in other
countries like the UK government, for example, offering billions of dollars to
support the arts to make sure that they remain supported. Are you worried about
that here in the United States?
I think at one level, absolutely. There is the crisis that
is hitting everybody in terms of who does not have a job. And you can only have
a certain amount of bailouts, and we have to pay for it. So what is it? What
service do musicians, poets or actors or illustrators or designers have on
people’s well-being? I’m not worried in the long term because if the economy is
there to create value, culture and the arts are there to create values and to
sustain values. And so, when we’re in crisis, what everybody is asking us to do
is to be resilient. And what creates resilience? It’s when we go back to our
basic values. And the values of making sure you tell the truth. Making sure
that whatever you do, you are building trust. And then to making sure that no
matter what you do, you’re trying to do something in the service of somebody
else because that’s why you’re on Earth.
So, if we actually — all of us — follow those values, I don’t
worry about a thing. This is a moment where actually we can take stock, and
that’s why people are saying we need a reset. That’s why people are saying that
this is actually a good moment to consider what kind of world we actually want
to live in, and to serve certain needs, things need to be changed. Well, what
does it take? How do I give from substance to actually create a better world in
this great American experiment?
In this moment when there are so many people who are
going through that crisis, I’d like you to talk to the musicians out there, the
ones who were working gig to gig before the pandemic, who have seen all those
gigs dry up, who don’t know if this is sustainable moving forward. What is it
you would say to them in this moment?
What I would say is that for anybody who owns a smartphone —
and I hope most musicians do — is to actually practice the “one-on-one
principle,” because as a musician, your job — our job — is to actually move one
person at a time. So pick a person that you know, or maybe you don’t know, but
let’s say that you know, that may need what you do as a service. Maybe it’s
someone who’s healthy, maybe someone who’s ill, maybe it’s a child who has been
stuck at home. Pick what you think is the right thing to play for them. Make it
personal, because it’s always personal, and record it with a little message and
send it to them.
I would start there and build from there, because if all
musicians did that, if all actors would just say to someone, “You know, I
thought of a poem for you.” “I’m a painter. You know what, I just drew
something for you. Because I know you love this color. I know you’ve always
talked about this thing, and so I just thought I made this little drawing for
you. Would you treasure that?” I hope so. I hope the answer is yes, because
that’s the first principle of music. Your first principles in science, the
first principles in everything. But now we’re getting down to the first
principles of what you and I can share together. And it’s that important. That’s
how we rebuild our humanity. Yes, we can go abstract and say, “Yes, we need
policy, [or] whatever,” that’s systemic, that’s long term. That’s 30 years. But
people want to do things now. So create the value of that one-on-one for each
musician, for each actor, for each poet, for each artist to say, “Pick a
person. Pick a person a day.”
That was such a beautiful answer. I am so sorry. And I
know why that made me tear up when you were talking about it. That was so
lovely.
Because it’s personal.
It absolutely is, it is.
[“Beyond
the CANVAS” showcases some of the nation’s leading cultural creators —
musicians, playwrights, comedians, among many others — who show us how they
turn their visions of the world into art.]
*
* * *
“YO-YO MA ON HOW
MUSICIANS CAN ‘REBUILD OUR HUMANITY’ DURING THE PANDEMIC”
by Joshua Barajas and Amna Nawaz
[Amna Nawaz and Joshua
Barajas’s report below was broadcast on PBS NewsHour’s
Canvas arts and culture segment on Friday
evening, 31 July 2020.]
When Yo-Yo Ma was asked what he’d say to musicians who had
seen their gigs dry up due to the coronavirus pandemic, he said music makers
and other artists can act on the “one-on-one principle.”
“As a musician, your job — our job — is to actually move one
person at a time,” Ma told the PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz.
Ma said to pick a person that you may or may not know —
maybe it’s someone who’s ill, stuck at home, or having to work during the
crisis — who “may need what you do as a service.” He suggested that a musician
play something for this person, record themselves performing it, along with
adding a personal message, and then send it to them.
Ma said artists can build from that — reaching out to one
another during this crisis.
“That’s how we rebuild our humanity,” he added.
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