Flowing Chords and Notes
In December 2014, I was contacted by representatives of acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma to learn if we would be interested in having him put on a free nighttime concert for our students, families, and staff with remaining tickets to be made available to the community. I, of course, immediately responded, “Yes!” and worked with the appropriate personnel to welcome Yo-Yo Ma to our school and surrounding community.
Prior to his performance, Yo-Yo Ma stopped by the school so we could meet and for him to see our auditorium. The Lane Tech auditorium seats 2,200 audience members and Yo-Yo Ma was happy with the acoustics and the auditorium’s stage layout. On January 12, 2015 Yo-Yo Ma and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago performed their Open Rehearsal. Yo-Yo Ma and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Scott Speck, explored selections from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Nos. 1 and 6 and Rococo Variations.
Growing New Ideas
What impressed me most about Yo-Yo Ma, beyond his abilities as a virtuoso, were his natural abilities as a teacher. That evening, prior to Yo-Yo Ma performing, he was more than generous with his time and spent time discussing a variety of educational topics with me. When he performed, he discussed not only the selections he and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago were performing but also spent time teaching the audience about the selections, techniques, and approaches towards practicing and performing. During the intermission and after the performance, he spent time with my daughters chatting about the importance of learning and his own experiences with education.
Music instruction is interdisciplinary and includes the development of language skills, mathematics computation, scientific inquiry skills, and perhaps most importantly, social-emotional skills. In many ways, music is an art and a science, and is a natural, interwoven fiber in the fabric of STEAM education. Music includes the physics of sound, the mathematical intervals of time, and linguistic patterns of voice and pitch. Music also includes experimentation.
Additionally, the role of music for social, emotional learning can not be understated, and is a life skill that extends far beyond school walls, as it is braided within culture and society. There is a natural, aesthetic beauty in the fusion of art and science, and music is the interlaced timbre of synthesis. There was beauty in observing Yo-Yo Ma naturally bring these disciplines together for a single night of performance.
I was expecting to be dazzled by a virtuoso cellist but was, instead, incredibly humbled and impressed by a naturally skilled teacher. Yo-Yo Ma possessed an intrinsic, natural ability to teach and is the consummate lifelong learner.
Chris
Referenced links and documents:
An Interview with Yo-Yo Ma, Michelle Johnson and Yo-Yo Ma. World Literature Today, Jul. – Aug., 2006, Vol. 80, No. 4, pp. 6-8. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
Art in a Time of Crisis, Kinan Azmeh and Yo-Yo Ma. 2016. The Leland Stanford Junior University Board of Trustees
Here Again by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Life’s Work: An Interview with Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Beard. June 2016. Harvard Business Review
The Silk Road and Beyond: A Conversation with James Cuno and Yo-Yo Ma, James Cuno and Yo-Yo Ma. Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 2007, Vol. 33, No. 1,
Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Charm, and Strange by Chris Dignam
Yo-Yo Ma performs free concert at Lane Tech HS, ABC7 Chicago
Yo-Yo Ma and Civic Orchestra Perform Free Concert, The Warrior
Yo-Yo Ma and Civic Orchestra to Perform Free Concert at Lane Tech, Roscoe Village, Chicago, DNAinfo