In a career spanning four decades, internationally revered cellist Yo-Yo Ma has dazzled the world as both a musician and a champion for culture’s impact on humanity. For one night only, he joins Great Bay Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Music Director David Upham, for an evening of transformative music. 

Edward Elgar’s poignant and touching Concerto, written immediately after the end of World War I speaks directly to our shared human experiences of loss and hope. The program also features Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees, and Ravel’s masterpiece, Le Tombeau de Couperin.

Yo-Yo’s discography of more than 120 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners), ranging from iconic renditions of the Western classical canon to recordings that defy categorization, such as “Hush” with Bobby McFerrin and the “Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Yo-Yo’s recent releases include Six Evolutions, his third recording of Bach’s cello suites, and Songs of Comfort and Hope, created and recorded with pianist Kathryn Stott in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yo-Yo’s latest album, Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6 and Op. 1, No. 3, is the second in a new series of Beethoven recordings with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos.

Yo-Yo was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize, the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Kennedy Center Honors, the Polar Music Prize, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. 

Program
Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man
Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees
Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin.

Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto

Artists
David Upham, Conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello

Pre-show Member Event

Join us in The Lounge at 6:30pm!

Stop by The Lounge for a drink and conversation anytime in the 60 minutes before select shows at The Music Hall! Join fellow Music Hall members and movers and shakers in the cozy bar setting of The Lounge.

Available for select shows to Music Hall Members.

Cash bar, free conversation. Not a member yet? Join today!

About Great Bay Philharmonic Orchestra

The Great Bay Philharmonic Orchestra (GBPO) is a regional, all-professional orchestra comprised of the finest musicians from New England and beyond. The Great Bay Philharmonic Orchestra compares favorably to the finest professional orchestras in New England. Now, with David Upham continuing in an expanded role as Music Director, GBPO has taken its place among the great orchestras of the Northeastern United States.

Great Bay Philharmonic Orchestra Season Sponsors:

Mulhern & Scott and The LaPorta Family