NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with Ana Gonzalez and cellist Yo-Yo Ma about their new podcast Our Widespread Nature from WNYC, which connects music with nature and place.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Keep in mind the early days of the COVID pandemic again in 2020, when lots of people felt trapped of their properties or residences? That was a time when cellist Yo-Yo Ma began fascinated by reconnecting with the outside.
YO-YO MA: I grew up in cities – you recognize, concrete. However you recognize what? The older I get, the extra I am drawn to locations the place there are extra timber than individuals. And the extra I perceive issues, I understand that we’re really a part of nature.
DETROW: So he stepped out of the live performance corridor and teamed up with host Ana Gonzalez to journey the nation and make music in nature with individuals who have deep connections to the Earth. The outcome was “Our Widespread Nature,” a restricted podcast collection this fall with WNYC and Sound Postings. I spoke with Yo-Yo Ma and Ana Gonzalez about their podcast, and we began our dialog with an excerpt from their first episode in Maine’s Acadia Nationwide Park throughout a dawn efficiency with Wabanaki musicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “OUR COMMON NATURE”)
LAUREN STEVENS: (Chanting in non-English language).
I knew it was necessary to carry out the welcome music. That music is necessary for each time we collect or each time there have been visiting tribes as that welcome, as that form of start line.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF CELLO MUSIC)
STEVENS: This was the primary time I had ever heard our conventional music with a nontraditional instrument. And to listen to the welcome music performed by Yo-Yo on the cello, it resonated internally. Like, I might really feel it in my physique. It vibrated my soul.
(SOUNDBITE OF CELLO MUSIC)
DETROW: First, Ana, are you able to describe what was taking place in that scene?
ANA GONZALEZ, BYLINE: Certain. Yeah. That was one of many first items that you simply’re listening to from this dawn efficiency, and that was the – it was the summer time of 2021. It was, you recognize, proper as daybreak was breaking. And the lady you are listening to, her identify is Lauren Stevens. She’s a Wabanaki singer, and he or she is describing performing this conventional music that she had grown up singing that meant lots. It meant lots about inclusion and bringing individuals collectively.
And, you recognize, this isn’t a standard ceremony as a result of these aren’t allowed to be recorded, however this was form of a approach for the musicians like Lauren Stevens and Chris Newell, who’s enjoying the drum in that recording, to offer Yo-Yo and different individuals who had been current only a style of what it means to welcome the solar with music, how music is usually a automobile for each connecting individuals to one another but additionally the pure occurrences which are taking place throughout us.
MA: Scott, I’ve to say one thing – that, you recognize, all of us spend a lot time searching for goal and which means…
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: …And to discover a group of those that it is so apparent what which means is to them, and to be welcomed into their neighborhood, into their circle of belief and – after, you recognize, rising up at daybreak, which is form of a bit daunting generally, you recognize? However all of us – we sat in a circle and everyone – it is like a Quaker ceremony. You recognize, individuals simply would communicate and communicate their thought. And – you recognize, and it is a broad circle of individuals – scientists, Native individuals, neighborhood members. The governor was there. Deb Haaland was there – the secretary of the inside at the moment – our first Native secretary of the inside. And to have that form of dialog, it is a world opening, and it simply provides you a distinct perspective on life.
DETROW: If you’re invited into an intimate setting like that, I really feel like it could go two methods. You’ll be able to really feel self-conscious and questioning about whether or not it’s best to actually be there or whether or not you actually belong there. Or you may embrace it and really feel that welcome, you recognize, invite and absolutely take part. And I think about the enjoying of music is a strong draw to the latter possibility. Is that proper?
MA: Completely. I believe – properly – and dealing with Ana is exceptional as a result of she is each current and stealth. I imply, you recognize, you do not discover it, and he or she’s recording…
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: …Completely every little thing, which is a exceptional…
GONZALEZ: With permission. With permission.
DETROW: That is good (laughter).
GONZALEZ: Sure.
MA: Completely, with permission. However the factor is I – we’ve – crucial factor on this planet is belief. And if somebody trusts you, they’re prepared to information you into their world. And there aren’t any hidden agendas. I am not trying to take one thing from individuals. I am not trying, you recognize, to achieve. We’re really curious, and we needed to point out appreciation and to study. And if that is your angle, I believe most frequently, individuals will say, good, I will present you what we’ve, you recognize? And one factor I’ve realized working in tradition is that in tradition, you by no means break a relationship. When you kind a relationship, it is eternally.
DETROW: What do you concentrate on that, Ana? I imply, I believe this podcast is about connection in a second the place it feels more durable and more durable and at instances inconceivable, however you are…
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
DETROW: …Capable of finding it via this mix of things.
GONZALEZ: I imply, like Yo-Yo mentioned, music actually helps. And coming in with, like, this openness, this curiosity of – this fact of, like, we’re completely different. Now we have completely different experiences. I do know that. I don’t know what your expertise is, and I’m right here for the only goal of studying about them if you wish to inform me about them. So it was an actual train for me as a journalist to be like, I am simply, you recognize, right here to study and produce out the humanity and who they’re and get the laughs, get the music, get the large feelings and work out what makes them that three-dimensional particular person, who everyone is.
DETROW: Yeah. Yo-Yo, I am questioning, you recognize, as you are touring in all of those completely different out of doors environments, you recognize, I am questioning in the event you ever thought, like, man, I want I performed the flute as an alternative of the cello, dragging (laughter) the cello round all these locations.
MA: Oh, that is humorous. You recognize what? I do not really feel like I – properly, perhaps generally a fantasy I ought to play an instrument that matches in my pocket.
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: However what I do understand increasingly more is that this type of search to attempt to perceive is definitely what fuels my music. So lots of people say – you recognize, ask, you recognize, what are you fascinated by? What, you recognize – are you attempting to realize perfection, excellence? It simply – no, I exploit approach to attempt to be capable to report precisely my witnessing of one thing that’s significant. And in that sense, I believe Ana and I’ve the identical targets.
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: You recognize, we’re reporters on, in a approach, the human situation as we exist in nature.
DETROW: That is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, in addition to producer Ana Gonzalez. Their new podcast, “Our Widespread Nature,” is out now. Thanks a lot for speaking to us about this.
GONZALEZ: Thanks, Scott.
MA: It is nice to speak with you.
DETROW: “Our Widespread Nature” is on the market wherever you get your podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEIJI OZAWA, ET AL.’S “HUMORESQUE NO. 7 IN G-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 101”)
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