Stamford-based Orchestra Lumos was joined by a household name for their performances over the weekend. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed Rebel, Dvořák, Sibelius, and Haydn for two concerts titled “Our Common World” after Ma’s multi-year project connecting music, culture and nature.
WSHU sat down with both Ma and Stern to learn more about the importance of music as a part of the community, and the amateur that still lives inside every musical professional.
WSHU: Yo-Yo, it is a pleasure to have you on WSHU. So much of your work ties community and culture into music. How did that play out with Orchestra Lumos and Michael?
YM: Well, we talk a lot. We've known one another forever. We both want to make sure that whatever we do has purpose and meaning. The fact that Michael was so excited about conducting this orchestra – what I've learned since coming here is that this orchestra is not a Stamford orchestra. It's more like an orchestra for a whole county. And I think that is very special. And at a national scale, we are experiencing divides in our country, and we both have always felt that music, and this is from our parentage, our lineage of the, you know, people that have been in our lives. They've all done the same thing, so we're not inventing this, but that music really does bring people together, and it can sit on the stage and make us imagine something better.
WSHU: And Michael, you've worked with Yo-Yo a number of times on stages across the country. Orchestra Lumos does things a little differently from other groups. How has working together this time been different?
MS: Well, to be fair, I don't think that he and I have ever given a concert where we haven't spoken from the stage. We're fairly verbal, but I also think that there is the idea, which is really powerful, of why you come together for a live performance. And it's not just about listening to music passively. First of all, I don't believe anything about music is passive. You have to listen actively; you have to make music actively. And frankly, if we made it a requirement of all of our elected officials and politicians around us that they had to learn how to play in a string quartet or a wind quintet, they would be better because you cannot make music without listening and contributing actively to the conversation.
Ultimately, the idea is to make you feel something and think about something in a different way. And the power of music is that the person sitting next to you can be equally affected by what they're hearing in a completely different way than you are, with no less validity. So we have to believe still that art and culture and music can make a difference.
WSHU: Yeah, and optimism and imagination have come up so much in this conversation. You've both been making groundbreaking work since you were children. Do you still have some of that child in you when you're playing or conducting?
YM: I'll answer first because I'm older and I have four grandchildren. There is no way you could be a grandparent without being optimistic. You can't deal with a two, four, six, eight-year-old coming to you and saying, “I'm really depressed today.” You have to light up, you find, so optimism is a philosophy. Our job, as grandparents or parents and as musicians, is to inspire one another, to get us in touch with awe and wonder. I mean, truly, a beginner's mind is absolutely required. You're, you're as good as your last concert – No, you're as good as starting from zero every single day. All of us. I think Michael and me, professional musicians, aspire toward the condition of being amateurs because, as Michael has said, the word amateur –
MS: – it comes from the French. Somebody, you do something for love, it's somebody who's in love with what they do. We happen to be making a living doing the thing that we love the most.
