Connecting an Audience in Community

As one of the best-known classical musicians in the world, Yo-Yo Ma has been delighting audiences with his masterful cello performances since he began playing publicly as a child prodigy at five years old. At 70, he is still performing but he has elevated his mission to create shared connection for his audiences beyond a listening experience.

Culture makes us human. It is how we create trust, wonder, faith, belonging. Culture helps us care for one another and for the world we share. It reminds us that nature is part of our humanity and that it contains an imagination greater than our own.

—Yo-Yo Ma

My family and I were fortunate enough to attend Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello at Symphony Hall in Boston a few weeks ago. The concert was also live-streamed to several community libraries and gathering spaces in Massachusetts.

From the moment we arrived at Symphony Hall that night, we could tell this concert was going to be unlike any other classical music experience. The ushers were handing out note cards and pencils along with the program pamphlets as we entered. A single chair waited on the stage. I flipped through the program and read the message to his audience from Yo-Yo Ma, which focused on community: “As you come together tonight, community by community, I hope you will talk, listen, and share your thoughts with your neighbors…”

Once Yo-Yo Ma appeared on stage, he took the microphone in his hands and began walking around the stage speaking to the audience about what his career in music has meant to him. He talked about the people he’d met around the world, and he stressed his worldview of shared humanity. When he sat down and began performing Suite No. 1 in G Major, the lights never dimmed. He was watching the audience as we watched him, and he was visibly delighting in the music and the overall experience.

In the middle of the concert, he asked us to write something on the notecards we had been given and then to pass our own to someone sitting near us we didn’t know. It was interesting to see unfamiliar audience members connecting with each other and exchanging the notes.

Classical music has the reputation of being rigid and formal, but Yo-Yo Ma has found a way to change the experience. I think we all left Symphony Hall that night feeling amazed at the music, the virtuosity of the performer, and the community around us.