Does anybody know if Yo Yo Ma is a Democrat?

I was just wondering.

I would be vaguely disappointed if I were to learn he did.

contact of a professional acquaintence but don't have the temerity to ask into his politics. I'm curious at the same time. He appears to align with some pointedly humane undertakings and speaks as if he felt deeplly about peaceful initiatives -- but I'm with you on not recalling any political endorsements.

Also he can turn the mechanical notes of an adagio movement into vivid gemstones in the blink of an eye. What a talent.

especially simple instrument to master.

Certainly there's hours of hard and challenging and insurmountable technique to overcome, but I think the talent component is essential as well.

I could listen to Yo Yo Ma all night.

And have -- often.

...devotion to his art. In fact, I would be surprised if he were so monolithic as to have no interests beyond the cello.

are considerable and varied.

Link here: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2006/08/anita_hill_yoyo.html

Well, Gov. Patrick is a Democrat if there ever was one, so maybe that helps locate Mr. Ma on the political spectrum.

Thank you.

There was also his advocacy of loosening restrictive visa requirements:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401788.html

I'd say he's a liberal, if not a Dem per se.

Off-topic, he was, uh, instrumental in the creation of an innovative park here in Toronto:

http://www.toronto.ca/parks/music_index.htm

It's a beautiful place.

worst pun of the week.

Think you can bribe a judge or somethin" ?

:hi:

Couldn't help myself!
:hi:

:evilgrin:

It's looking to me as if your reading is a bingo.

Wait. Never mind.

election.

Well in advance of the election, she should do the second thing -- pick up some Yo Yo Ma CDs.

and see has voted against party in recent elections and is starting to see the light about things. I am, of course ever the annoying son on a soapbox about things too. I'm proud of her. She started to get it after she took my stepson to "Farenheit 9/11". I frequently make her watch Keith Olbermann clips when she visits.

should help quite a bit, and the Moore film library is always good stuff.

Yo-yo and Petunia are awesome together.

musical tastes, you are damned near perfect.

I couldn't play a musical instrument if my life depended on it - not even "chopsticks." But there's something about Yo-yo Ma on the cello that will grab me even more than Isaac Stern on the violin. I've been known to get tears listening to him. But I sometimes have the same reaction to Louis Armstrong, Miss Ella, Earl Scruggs, and even the Moody Blues and CCR ... so my 'taste' is probably questionable to some.
:dunce:
One of my VERY favorite episodes of West Wing was when Yo-yo Ma was a guest star. The Bach Suite #1 for Cello is one of my favorites and Yo-yo Ma is THE definitive performance, imho. Tears and goosebumps. (I'm a Vivaldi "Four Seasons" fan, too. And "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini" by Rachmaninoff. Plebeian tastes, I guess.)

In politics, it's similar. Cheney/Bush make my skin crawl. :evilgrin:

key favorites It was NOT a reference to the Foley scandal.

You mention Stern. I had the briefest of corresopndence with Stern on the documentary "Isaac Stern in China," which was ostensibly about music but very much about politics -- well, social politics and how they affect Politics. Between Ma and Stern, it's real hard to find anything wrong with the universe.

The same skin affliction strikes me when I hear talented musicians perform, whether in the service of a political ideal or just to a coffee house full of aficionados on a rainy night.

The Baptists used to warn about the evils of dancing.

They got the power of music part right, but they were heading in the wrong direction on the conclusion!

I'll take your Bach and Rachmaninoff choices any day of the week. Beautiful stuff from both their pens. I have the Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concert (Entremont's recording) on this minute.

Loved your post. Thank you.

he's a very gentle person, not to mention he works in a very liberal community and very gay community. All the gay guys in the orchestra were clamoring to get near him. That was a long time ago (the 80's) and I thought maybe he was gay. He lives in Massachusetts - he's got to be a dem IMO

subject. I don't know if he was avoided it because he wanted to speak on other things, or if he considers it bad form, or what.

Or it could have been just that one interviewer's vibe.

If straight or gay people liked to hear intensely beautiful music in the register of the cello, they would either one wish to be around Mr. Ma.

I've never met him. So I envy you that. I did get to hear a concert or two in my travels, and am the better for it.

He inhabits the work of music as much as "performs" the score. Just an amazing musician.

It's something the greats have in common, it seems. Petunia becomes his voice - an extension of himself. His expression of the music is compelling. It's not the result of mere mechanical manipulation of the instrument but something organic. It's what I like about Monty Alexander on the piano and Satchmo on the horn. Itzhak Perlman comes very close on the violin. Gerry Mulligan had it on the sax and Chuck Mangione (sometimes) had it on the flugelhorn. (His brother, Gap, sometimes had it on the keyboards.)

His Appalachian Journey was perfect to illustrate artist Chris Jordan's stunning work. (Chris was recently on Colbert's show.) Unfortunately, YouTube resolution doesn't do justice to Mr. Jordan's photography.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FoGUjk880

special teeter-totters I love.

A lot of artists have drawn fire for opposing political regimes or policies. Some have defied the system and some were punished for doing so.

Others found a way to cooperative/survive in the face of grave threats to their families.

Some, defiant to the end, were blacklisted or hauled off in train cars to eventual death.

A lot of what artists write or paint etc. far outlives the politics of an era. That is sort of a secret artists and their followers have over established politicians. The great secret of power isn't to wield it from 10 Downing Street or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but to sublimate ideas in a painting or a piece of music or a poem or novel etc.

Richard Wagner was a right wing, bigoted, sexist clout, which is why Hitler loved him. I still love his music in spite of his politics. I think we need to think of Yo Yo Ma in the same way. Of course it would be better if he were a liberal.

It would be interesting to hear a really in-depth interview with Ma. Ideally, Bill Moyers would do the interview. We'd get a sense of his personal politics, I think, with Moyers.

and I call her Yo Yo Ma! (It's a Philly thing)

Though, I still prefer the overly romantic Pablo Casals. ;)

Yo-yo is astonishingly expressive but seems to adhere to the structure. Yo-yo's Bach is (imho) perfect.

Caveat: I have no formal music training and can't even play the tambourine. I listen.

:D

I totally agree about Casals, but lately I have felt rather nostalgic for that style. I also stayed up every night this week watching an A&E documentary on the French Impressionists... sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century and the wrong country. I wish I was at the World's Fair in Paris right now... in 1889. :D

I have a couple of degrees in classical music performance, and have transcribed many a Bach suite and performed them. Nevertheless, your listener's ear may be as sophisticated at mine, Yo Yo's, André Previn's... whomever... maybe even more.

One of my favorite book recommendations is Aaron Copland's "What to Listen for in Music." That book is for everyone. :)

http://www.amazon.com/What-Listen-Music-Aaron-Copland/dp/0451628802

I worked on the outskirts of Paris for 3-4 months in the late 70s. One of my most cherished experiences (of many) was visiting the Jeu de'Paume in the Tuileries - before the impressionists were moved to the Musee d'Orsay. Breathtaking! (Quite literally.) It made me glad I had sight. The light, the color - enough to cure clinical depression.

Caveat: I can't even draw flies.

Thank you for the recommendation, Swampy ... I've placed it in my Wish List for my next "SuperSaver" order.

My grandfather (a Norwegian immigrant farmboy cum skilled toolmaker with a 4th grade education and a passion for Edvard Grieg) turned me on to classical music (probably) before I could walk. Despite his lack of formal education, he was in many ways the smartest man I've ever known - and definitely the hardest working. During the Depression, his love for music compelled him to fabricate his own violin - cutting and planing the carefully-selected woods, soaking and shaping them, baking them in my grandmother's oven, gluing it together, etc. - and proceed to teach himself to play. He could afford neither a violin nor lessons. He could barely afford the strings - with 5 children to feed. He actually became quite good - better than any high school student I'd heard.

On Sunday afternoons, in particualr, he'd listen with rapt attention to his collection of 78's - all the greats (mostly on the RCA Victor red labels) - alerting me to pay attention to some key parts he liked.

When I listen ... I think of him.


Whenever I open a milk carton, I also think of him. He was, for a while, the sole skilled toolmaker able to perform the key, critical part of the work that made the machines first produced by Ex-Cello (patented) that, at the dairy, filled those paper/cardboard containers (almost the only kind we see these days) that form the pouring spout when the flaps are spread. For many years, every single one of those milk containers, anywhere in the world, was certain to have my grandfather's work in their origins.

My grandfather, too, encouraged my interest in music. He was a writer living in Manhattan (colleague of Bertrand Russell in the 1930s peace movement), and I visited him a few times when I was very young. The moment I knew I was going to be a musician occurred when I was 4 yrs old, when my grandfather took me to Lincoln Center to see Bernstein conduct the New York Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." When I heard the opening bassoon solo, something came over me, almost like a hallucinogenic experience. I knew then I was a musician. Unfortunately a drunk driver ended my concert career 10 years ago, just after I won a regional music competition and graduated from graduate school. :( So now, I just play percussion with my samba band, performing mostly during Mardi Gras. :)

Now, I have gone back to school, but this time to study geographic information science and remote sensing.

and that other brain soaked it all in. It was wonderful.