3 questions with Yo-Yo Ma before his Nashville performance

Even if your knowledge of classical music extends only to dentist office waiting rooms, you know the music of Yo Yo Ma. He’s been famous since he was five years old when he played for President John F. Kennedy as a child prodigy. He’s 70 now and this Sunday at the Grand Ole Opry, he will play a 293-year-old cello and give his, “report card on life,” in a show titled “Reflections in Words and Music.”

Petunia

Justin Barney: Nashville is a city that cares about its instruments. If you’re on stage, people are thinking, “What kind of guitar is he playing?”

And I know that you have some very interesting cellos. What cello will you be bringing on Sunday?

Yo Yo Ma: Well, I’m going to be bringing my four stringed guitar, which I play with a bow. So it’s a guitar with a bow and it was made in Venice, the city of Gondolas, and uh, and a trade city that actually got so much of its materials and colors from places like Egypt.

It was made in 1733. Now, what do you think of that? 43 years before the founding of the United States.

It’s name is Petunia.

I was in Salt Lake City about 35 years ago, and I was playing for a bunch of high school students and they were asking me, ‘Do you have a name for the cello?’

And I didn’t have a name, and so I said to them. ‘Look, I’m gonna play you a song and you listen to, and name comes to you and you think of it and you tell me what it is, and I like it, I will name the cello by the name that you choose. So after I played, a high school student named Brittany said, ‘I think I have a name. It’s Petunia.’ I said ‘That’s a great name. Thank you. From now on, this cello will be called Petunia,’ which it is today.

And guess what? Brittany now is a music teacher in in Salt Lake City and we still pass messages back and forth. She named it. And that’s the name of the cello.

Justin, if you listen to the cello and you think of a middle name for the cello, maybe I’ll give it a middle name too.

Yo Yo Ma’s “Report card on life”

Justin Barney: The show on Sunday involves words and music. What was the impetus for doing words and music?

Yo Yo Ma: Well, the thing. You know, from being in the city of music that, musicians make sounds that come from deep inside. It’s a unique voice. I’ve been doing that all my life thinking that the sounds I make are actually truly representative of all the experiences that I have had.

So, I will share with you everything that I have learned in my 70 years of life. Here’s my report card. This is my report to you on what I’ve seen and what some of my conclusions are.

Basically the conclusions are that we have it within us to be hopeful, to be collaborative, and to constantly renew ourselves so that we can actually keep our American experiment going strong.

Justin Barney: You know, some people don’t come to that conclusion. Why do you think that that’s the conclusion you’ve come to?

Yo Yo Ma: Well, that’s a great question, Justin, because I think there are days I wake up in the morning and I think, ‘Oh gee, there’s bad news all over the place’ and often I can despair.

But what I realize as a 70-year-old, I’m the grandfather of four grandchildren, right? You cannot be in a despairing mode with grandchildren because they’re full of life, full of curiosity, and what’s coming next.

So, in fact, being optimistic is actually a philosophy. There’s a lot of things that can make me despair, but I have to pick myself up and say, ‘I’m gonna be positive and I’m gonna be constructive and this is the way I’m gonna do it today.’ I have to make that decision every day. And I think that’s sort of what keeps me going.

I believe that we can bring out the best in ourselves and rise to a higher power within ourselves. That we can work toward a goal that’s greater than ourselves, because that’s the basis of our democracy. You know, government for the people, by the people. We look for truth, we build trust and all of that. It is for us, we invent things so that we can actually live better and more hopeful lives.

Yo Yo Ma on Nashville

Justin Barney: You’re playing at the Grand Ole Opry. Have you played there before?

Yo Yo Ma: This is going to be actually my first time. Being on campus is gonna be a thrill of a lifetime.

I mean, my goodness, here I am, you know, little immigrant, Yo-Yo Ma at age 70, getting to play at the Grand Ole Opry. You know, it’s like, ‘Wow.’

It’s such a privilege and honor to be able to step foot on these hallowed floorboards.

I think what I love about music is that I feel that music is part of a giant mansion. And there are many, many rooms in this mansion, and we all live under that one roof. And when we live under that one roof, we’re constantly intermingling and collaborating and creating new things that reflect what we are going through psychically in our country.

We are a mirror of the society that we live in and when musicians get together, we can actually put all our thoughts and hopes and feelings together and try and bring out the best of what we can be.

Nashville is one of the great homes for music. It’s not just a city of music, but it’s a home for music.

It’s grown so much and it, it reflects the best of what is possible in America. You have people that can be drawn together because they want to work together. They want to be with one another.

Cellist and dignitary Yo-Yo Ma. Performing at the Grand Ole Opry on Sunday Photo by Brantley Gutierrez