"decided to allow myself the pleasure of this singular experience."
August 22, 2023 3:32 PM Subscribe
"Well, one day I found out he was actually coming into town to play as the featured soloist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra." A sweet story by a pianist about a risk she took when she was much younger, and what happened next. Told in a Mastodon thread, 8 posts long (you'll have to tap/click "Read more" to read each post in its entirety).
The stories about the man I have heard from other people who have met him suggest that he is consistently real and consistently kind.
posted by Peach at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Peach at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2023 [5 favorites]
What a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing this.
posted by merriment at 4:23 PM on August 22, 2023
posted by merriment at 4:23 PM on August 22, 2023
Yeah, this tracks from my one time meeting him. He was a really good and chill super talented dude.
This story though, this would be something everyone around me would get tired of me telling.
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:26 PM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
This story though, this would be something everyone around me would get tired of me telling.
posted by drewbage1847 at 4:26 PM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
Hmmm...TIL Mastodon does not play well with older iOS devices. Bummer.
Anyone care to offer a synopsis?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2023
Anyone care to offer a synopsis?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:20 PM on August 22, 2023
Here you go Thorzdad:
(I hope this isn't a no-no)
When I was a little Lana The Musician, one of my heroes was Yo-yo Ma. Growing up in a tiny little backwater town in Kansas, though, my only real contact with him were his albums. I would listen to them on rotation literally all day long in my pocket DiscMan. (That'll tell you how old I am!)
Well, one day I found out he was actually coming into town to play as the featured soloist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. I was over the moon with excitement! I had been volunteering at WSO for the last couple of years, because they allowed you to sit in and listen to the symphony when you were done taking tickets and opening/closing doors. So I was determined to go usher for his performance.
The day came, and the house was packed. I could barely contain myself. Yo-yo was actually here! In the same building! Then disaster struck! Try as I might, I could not find an empty seat anywhere in the theatre!
I looked and looked all over. No seats on the main floor. No seats in the balconies. No seats in the mezzanine. I thought I spotted one, but it was only a very short woman, sort of slouching down. How could I be so close and yet so far away from hearing one of my musical idols?? I mean, I suppose I could always sit in the ticket office and listen to the performance piped in through the speakers. But it wouldn't be the same.
Then I spotted something. While the regular seats were all sold out, the Century II amphitheater had a really strange specific quirk to its architecture. Between the second balcony and the mezzanine was actually a tiny, additional half-floor called the Louge. It wasn't used very often, and usually was reserved for visiting dignitaries or very wealthy patrons. But remember, I had been taking tickets all night, and I hadn't seen even one ticket for the Louge AT ALL. It must not be in use for this concert!
This was my opportunity! Now, to get to the Louge, you had to either get past some security doors that were almost always locked...or else sort of trick one of the service elevators to let you off before the next floor. AND I KNEW HOW TO DO THAT.
So off I ran, to the back of the house. I found the service elevators, and punched in the floor above the Louge, labeled M for Mezzanine. When the elevator dinged and opened to the Mezzanine, showing a bunch of other ushers clustered around at one of the tiny speakers, they all looked up at me. I made a bit of a show of forgetting something and hit the button for Balcony 2, sending the elevator back down. Now, to trick the elevator, you had to be travelling down, and you had to time the stop button. I counted carefully, and hit STOP exactly 3 seconds later. The doors dinged open, and there it was. The Louge. I had made it!
The Louge was essentially a very fancy set of executive box suites, all exquisitely decorated with plush couches and lounge seats, and there was a small sort of half-window which was open to the auditorium, through which you had a perfect view of the entire Century II stage.
I had been up here once before, helping to cater a group of people from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who were one of the major donors for the symphony. So I sort of knew my way around. It was weird and a little off-putting seeing it so empty. The younger generation would probably call it a "liminal space" now. It had that kind of uncanny, unsettling quality of a space clearly intended for lots of people, but with nobody in it.
I opened one of the doors to a lounge suite, and walked inside, shutting the door behind me very quietly.
I walked over to the half-window and looked outside, just as the lights went down and the conductor took the stage. There was the orchestra, spread out before me. It was magical. The crowd clapped, and I joined in. Yo-yo was nowhere to be seen but that was to be expected. His portion of the program wasn't until after intermission. The first half was a Haydn Symphony. Not the main event, but still a very enjoyable piece of music. I couldn't believe my luck.
I went over to one of the little coolers that housed snacks and sodas, and took out a coke, leaving 50¢ on the counter to assuage my guilty conscience. I decided to allow myself the pleasure of this singular experience. I wasn't doing anything harmful.
I sighed, and popped the top, muffling the sound as well as I could with the palm of my hand, and prepared myself for an unforgettable performance.
That's when I heard the voice behind me.
"Mind grabbing me one too?"
I froze. I wasn't supposed to be here. But the question didn't seem like someone upset at my presence. The voice itself was kind, and if anything, a bit bemused.
Slowly, I turned around. There, seated comfortably in one of the plush lounge chairs, was Mr Yo-yo Ma himself. I blinked.
I blinked again.
He was still there.
He gestured at the opened soda can in my hand and repeated himself. "Mind grabbing me a coke from the cooler?"
I stammered out a "Oh! Uh! Of course, Yo-yo Ma. Mr. Yo-yo. Mr Ma? That can't be right. Um. Sorry. Sure."
He laughed off my nervousness and accepted the coke I snatched up from the fridge cooler. Then gestured to the lounge chair next to him, inviting me to sit down and stay.
What followed was probably the most surreal couple of hours of my teenage life. I got to sit and chat with my idol, Mr Yo-yo Ma, about everything and anything. Music, the cello, my life, school, everything.
He was gracious and kind and a VERY funny conversationalist. He instantly put me at ease, and we sat there surrounded by luxury listening to the orchestra perform Haydn, sipping our cold Coca-Colas. From time to time he would ask me some small question about the performance. What did I think about this cadenza, how did I like the conductor's dynamic choices during this phrase. Most times we just sat in silence, enjoying the music. It was like being with an old friend. You don't need to say much. You just like knowing they're there.
As the orchestra neared the final few bars of the last movement, he checked his watch, and said "Well, I suppose I'd best get down there. They'll be needing me soon."
I had nearly forgotten that I was talking with the featured performer. I laughed a bit. "Of course. Good luck, break a leg."
"Hope you enjoy it. And, you might want to make sure you toss those out before you go back down....don't want to get caught," he winked.
And one would think the story ended there. The time I snuck into a luxury lounge space for billionaires and hung out with a celebrity for several hours just shooting the shit while Haydn played in the background just for us.
But it wasn't.
Years later, I was working on a piece I had written for an author named Eric Metaxas. The words of his book were being set to music, and I had been selected from a group of other composers to write the score.
The piece called for a folksy guitar singer, and a solo cellist. The name that came up to perform it was...you guessed it. Yo-yo Ma.
As soon as he came into the recording booth to lay his part down, I was flooded with a sense of familiarity. He came in and introduced himself with a smile. I began to say "I don't know if you remember me, but..." When he leaned in and interrupted me with a conspiratorial whisper: "So...did you get rid of the evidence?"
I cracked up. I couldn't help it. He remembered.
🧵/End
posted by evilDoug at 5:42 PM on August 22, 2023 [34 favorites]
(I hope this isn't a no-no)
When I was a little Lana The Musician, one of my heroes was Yo-yo Ma. Growing up in a tiny little backwater town in Kansas, though, my only real contact with him were his albums. I would listen to them on rotation literally all day long in my pocket DiscMan. (That'll tell you how old I am!)
Well, one day I found out he was actually coming into town to play as the featured soloist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. I was over the moon with excitement! I had been volunteering at WSO for the last couple of years, because they allowed you to sit in and listen to the symphony when you were done taking tickets and opening/closing doors. So I was determined to go usher for his performance.
The day came, and the house was packed. I could barely contain myself. Yo-yo was actually here! In the same building! Then disaster struck! Try as I might, I could not find an empty seat anywhere in the theatre!
I looked and looked all over. No seats on the main floor. No seats in the balconies. No seats in the mezzanine. I thought I spotted one, but it was only a very short woman, sort of slouching down. How could I be so close and yet so far away from hearing one of my musical idols?? I mean, I suppose I could always sit in the ticket office and listen to the performance piped in through the speakers. But it wouldn't be the same.
Then I spotted something. While the regular seats were all sold out, the Century II amphitheater had a really strange specific quirk to its architecture. Between the second balcony and the mezzanine was actually a tiny, additional half-floor called the Louge. It wasn't used very often, and usually was reserved for visiting dignitaries or very wealthy patrons. But remember, I had been taking tickets all night, and I hadn't seen even one ticket for the Louge AT ALL. It must not be in use for this concert!
This was my opportunity! Now, to get to the Louge, you had to either get past some security doors that were almost always locked...or else sort of trick one of the service elevators to let you off before the next floor. AND I KNEW HOW TO DO THAT.
So off I ran, to the back of the house. I found the service elevators, and punched in the floor above the Louge, labeled M for Mezzanine. When the elevator dinged and opened to the Mezzanine, showing a bunch of other ushers clustered around at one of the tiny speakers, they all looked up at me. I made a bit of a show of forgetting something and hit the button for Balcony 2, sending the elevator back down. Now, to trick the elevator, you had to be travelling down, and you had to time the stop button. I counted carefully, and hit STOP exactly 3 seconds later. The doors dinged open, and there it was. The Louge. I had made it!
The Louge was essentially a very fancy set of executive box suites, all exquisitely decorated with plush couches and lounge seats, and there was a small sort of half-window which was open to the auditorium, through which you had a perfect view of the entire Century II stage.
I had been up here once before, helping to cater a group of people from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who were one of the major donors for the symphony. So I sort of knew my way around. It was weird and a little off-putting seeing it so empty. The younger generation would probably call it a "liminal space" now. It had that kind of uncanny, unsettling quality of a space clearly intended for lots of people, but with nobody in it.
I opened one of the doors to a lounge suite, and walked inside, shutting the door behind me very quietly.
I walked over to the half-window and looked outside, just as the lights went down and the conductor took the stage. There was the orchestra, spread out before me. It was magical. The crowd clapped, and I joined in. Yo-yo was nowhere to be seen but that was to be expected. His portion of the program wasn't until after intermission. The first half was a Haydn Symphony. Not the main event, but still a very enjoyable piece of music. I couldn't believe my luck.
I went over to one of the little coolers that housed snacks and sodas, and took out a coke, leaving 50¢ on the counter to assuage my guilty conscience. I decided to allow myself the pleasure of this singular experience. I wasn't doing anything harmful.
I sighed, and popped the top, muffling the sound as well as I could with the palm of my hand, and prepared myself for an unforgettable performance.
That's when I heard the voice behind me.
"Mind grabbing me one too?"
I froze. I wasn't supposed to be here. But the question didn't seem like someone upset at my presence. The voice itself was kind, and if anything, a bit bemused.
Slowly, I turned around. There, seated comfortably in one of the plush lounge chairs, was Mr Yo-yo Ma himself. I blinked.
I blinked again.
He was still there.
He gestured at the opened soda can in my hand and repeated himself. "Mind grabbing me a coke from the cooler?"
I stammered out a "Oh! Uh! Of course, Yo-yo Ma. Mr. Yo-yo. Mr Ma? That can't be right. Um. Sorry. Sure."
He laughed off my nervousness and accepted the coke I snatched up from the fridge cooler. Then gestured to the lounge chair next to him, inviting me to sit down and stay.
What followed was probably the most surreal couple of hours of my teenage life. I got to sit and chat with my idol, Mr Yo-yo Ma, about everything and anything. Music, the cello, my life, school, everything.
He was gracious and kind and a VERY funny conversationalist. He instantly put me at ease, and we sat there surrounded by luxury listening to the orchestra perform Haydn, sipping our cold Coca-Colas. From time to time he would ask me some small question about the performance. What did I think about this cadenza, how did I like the conductor's dynamic choices during this phrase. Most times we just sat in silence, enjoying the music. It was like being with an old friend. You don't need to say much. You just like knowing they're there.
As the orchestra neared the final few bars of the last movement, he checked his watch, and said "Well, I suppose I'd best get down there. They'll be needing me soon."
I had nearly forgotten that I was talking with the featured performer. I laughed a bit. "Of course. Good luck, break a leg."
"Hope you enjoy it. And, you might want to make sure you toss those out before you go back down....don't want to get caught," he winked.
And one would think the story ended there. The time I snuck into a luxury lounge space for billionaires and hung out with a celebrity for several hours just shooting the shit while Haydn played in the background just for us.
But it wasn't.
Years later, I was working on a piece I had written for an author named Eric Metaxas. The words of his book were being set to music, and I had been selected from a group of other composers to write the score.
The piece called for a folksy guitar singer, and a solo cellist. The name that came up to perform it was...you guessed it. Yo-yo Ma.
As soon as he came into the recording booth to lay his part down, I was flooded with a sense of familiarity. He came in and introduced himself with a smile. I began to say "I don't know if you remember me, but..." When he leaned in and interrupted me with a conspiratorial whisper: "So...did you get rid of the evidence?"
I cracked up. I couldn't help it. He remembered.
🧵/End
posted by evilDoug at 5:42 PM on August 22, 2023 [34 favorites]
Thank you, evilDoug! Such a marvelous tale!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:23 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
What a joy!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:46 PM on August 22, 2023
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:46 PM on August 22, 2023
Thank you! That made me choke up on the tram!
Yo-Yo Ma taught a master class at a nearby college when I was in high school. My teacher finagled an invite for our string quartet.
From the stage, Ma looked to the back where our teacher and I were standing behind the others in the three seats they could find.
He said, “You guys are from the high school, right? Come sit up front, you need to hear this.” And then he taught us all about anticipation and the breath.
That guy has real auditorium sense.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 1:34 AM on August 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
Yo-Yo Ma taught a master class at a nearby college when I was in high school. My teacher finagled an invite for our string quartet.
From the stage, Ma looked to the back where our teacher and I were standing behind the others in the three seats they could find.
He said, “You guys are from the high school, right? Come sit up front, you need to hear this.” And then he taught us all about anticipation and the breath.
That guy has real auditorium sense.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 1:34 AM on August 23, 2023 [8 favorites]
But how did he get in to the Louge if it was locked??
posted by saladin at 4:28 AM on August 23, 2023
posted by saladin at 4:28 AM on August 23, 2023
Secret passage from the Conservatory.
posted by eponym at 5:36 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by eponym at 5:36 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
I very briefly met Yo-Yo Ma at an event I was working. He has seen me getting screamed at by Alan Dershowitz—who was VERY unhappy with his first-row mezzanine seats at a hall that seats just over 1000 people—and he came over to make sure I was okay. He didn’t need to do anything and could have ignored me, but the fact that he came over and said “hey, you okay?” and chatted with me said a lot about his character. I’m glad this person got to meet him under happier circumstances!
posted by pxe2000 at 10:10 AM on August 23, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 10:10 AM on August 23, 2023 [13 favorites]
This is such a delightful story.
posted by OrangeDisk at 11:52 AM on August 23, 2023
posted by OrangeDisk at 11:52 AM on August 23, 2023
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