NOT OUR FIRST GOAT RODEO

Wednesday, August 11, 2021
07:30 PM | Ascend Amphitheater

Presented without the Nashville Symphony

Yo-Yo Ma – Stuart Duncan 
Edgar Meyer – Chris Thile
with guest Aoife O’Donovan

An astounding group of virtuosos – Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Edgar Meyer on bass and Chris Thile on mandolin — reunite live for the first time in nearly a decade. Joined by featured vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, the lively talents of these exceptional artists come together onstage to create a singular sound that’s part composed, part improvised, and uniquely American — music so complex to pull off that the group likens it to a goat rodeo, airplane pilots’ nickname for a situation in which many different things need to go right to avoid disaster. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, this concert presents “unlikely musicians on unlikely instruments in concerts...that [are] part blues, part bluegrass and a smidgen of Bach.”

2011’s GRAMMY^®-winning Goat Rodeo Sessions was the first step in this path-breaking collaboration, producing music that NPR’s World Cafe called “organic yet composed in a way that only four deeply talented, in-tune musicians could make it,” hinting “at Appalachia, Chinese classical, Celtic and jazz influences.” Now the group reunites to perform a collection of all-new music, accompanied by a new album on Sony Masterworks. These five musicians’ diverse traditions and experiences intersect to create a compelling sound that is at once global and American, a shared voice that speaks powerfully to the American experience.

The Nashville Symphony has been honored to host Yo-Yo Ma many times in our recent history. In September 2011, he opened the new season with a performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Silent Woods, a piece arranged for cello and orchestra. 

As Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero said at the time, "Yo-Ya Ma is by far the most recognizable cello player in the world, but he is also the most recognized superstar in classical music."