When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to the natural world. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo goes around the country to places where people have deep connections to the earth and begins to play. Host Ana González joins him to uncover stories of the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii. The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world's largest cave ... to hear the Louisville symphony orchestra perform. In Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world.” And the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent his entire career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.” Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.
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When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to the natural world. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo goes around the country to places where people have deep connections to the earth and begins to play. Host Ana González joins him to uncover stories of the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii. The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world's largest cave ... to hear the Louisville symphony orchestra perform. In Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world.” And the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent his entire career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.” Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.
On the island of Molokaʻi in Hawaii, we trace the spiritual power of mana, from a sacred grove to the Kalaupapa colony, where music, story, and Yo-Yo Ma’s performance honor the resilience and memory of those who came before.
West Virginia is defined by its beauty and its coal, two things that can work against each other. Yo-Yo Ma felt this as soon as stepped foot in its hills. This episode explores how music and poetry help process the emotions of a community besieged with disaster and held together by pride, duty, and love.
This episode begins in Fairbanks, AK. Yo-Yo Ma is at a house concert with drag queen environmentalist Pattie Gonia, singer/songwriter Quinn Christopherson and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, a writer and filmmaker from the Gwich’in Nation. They were all performing to help their communities process the negative effects of climate change in Alaska.
In the Great Smoky Mountains, traditions layer and intersect. Yo-Yo Ma believes that story and song can help us grapple with America’s complicated history. This episode highlights two stories of people who are reclaiming their connections to their homelands.
A cave can hold secrets. Louisville Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams knows that, which is why he wrote a piece for symphony orchestra to be performed entirely underground. Yo-Yo joins the orchestra as a soloist in a performance within Mammoth Cave that unlocks centuries of stories preserved by the caves' seemingly endless walls.
The series opens with a window into the Yo-Yo universe, one where music and nature work together. Host Ana González guides us into Yo-Yo’s mindset, connecting Bach to leaves, birds, and sunlight.
When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to the natural world. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo travels around the country to make music and meet people who have deep connections to the earth. Host Ana González joins him to uncover the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii.
When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to the natural world. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo goes around the country to places where people have deep connections to the earth and begins to play. Host Ana González joins him to uncover stories of the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii. The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world's largest cave ... to hear the Louisville symphony orchestra perform. In Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world.” And the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent his entire career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.” Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.
