In March I was thinking that I had never seen YoYo Ma live, which is kind of silly because he lives in the Boston area, is amazing and seems like such a kind person. So I decided I would have a long weekend over the summer in the Berkshires and hear him play when he was at Tanglewood. Which was over this weekend, and was amazing!
He had a special concert celebrating 250 years of America that was YoYo Ma and friends, and his friends included James Taylor and Jon Batiste, and others - like Bryan Stevenson and Heather Cox Richardson. After I bought the ticket I decided that staying at Kripalu might be nice since they are right next to each other, and then it turned out that they were having a program on mindfulness and classical music, where we all went to the concert - perfect!
I decided to go a little splurgy, and bought a ticket inside the shed - second row! Which I have never done before and probably won't again, but wow! So worth it. I've been to a few orchestra performances, and it always surprises me how the musicians all just wander on and turn up their instruments, set up their music, ect, like they are there for a practice. At one point they were all standing around for a bit, and then the oboe section just kind of wandered back in and then they could start.
Anyhow, the concert started out with Fanfare for the Common Man, which we listened to at Kripalu, and so I heard a lot more from it that I would have otherwise. Next, YoYo Ma came out and the first thing he said was "I am an immigrant" which set the tone for the night, which was really magical. He left the stage and there was more music, but soon he was back playing. Because I was so close I could see his hands moving and the expression on his face. The conductor for much of the evening was Ken-David Masur and I loved watching his dramatic flair. At one point YoYo Ma came out with a special violin that the first violinist played - apparently it belonged to one of the performers and had been owned by a freed slave many years ago.
For me the best part of the evening was when James Taylor came out - there was Jon Batiste, YoYo Ma and James Taylor on stage, and James Taylor was right in front of me. They started with Hard Times Come Again No More, and then You've Got a Friend. During You've Got a Friend James Taylor was like "sing along" and since he was right there it was like we were singing together. There was a planned encore which was We Shall Overcome, with everyone but YoYo (who I think snuck out early) that was just incredible. And, the musicians were like "shine your light" which of course everyone did with their phones, while recording. Because of course you would record that. I tried to post the video, but no dice.
After the concert I walked back to Kripalu, chatting with some other people who had gone to the concert and thinking what a special evening it had been. I really liked the Kripalu time as well. I got really lucky with my room, because I stayed in a dorm and wound up in a room with 3 beds - 2 bunk beds and a single, and only 2 other people. So it wasn't as crowded as the other bunks I was in. And, the two women turned out to be totally cool. I did a yoga class on Friday when I got there, and then I didn't sleep well on Friday night so I got up and did the 6:30 am class on Saturday, and then Yoga Dance on Sunday before I left. The program was really nice too. We did a lot of listening to the music that we would hear at the concert, and some gentle yoga. The instructor was really good - one thing she had us do was label our emotions. She said "labeling things can take away the intensity," so she recommended labeling things "pleasant" and "unpleasant" which I thought was weird hippy freak woo woo goo, but then today I was in a boring meeting and I thought "unpleasant" and she was right, I felt so much better. So, I'm going to keep that habit I think.
