yo, it's yo-yo MA in oMAha

I spent my trip to Europe in 2004 listening to a lot of a new CD I had just purchased--"Classic Yo-Yo." It was basically a greatest hits of the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. I was mesmerized by the music. Everything from classical to Latin American tangos to music by John Williams and music from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Yo-Yo Ma, I discovered, could make the cello do magical things.

And so I listened to Yo-Yo Ma as I looked at Da Vinci paintings in Florence. As I spent hours in the Louvre in Paris. As I walked the halls of the National Gallery in London.

I listened to Yo-Yo Ma as I began training for my first marathon in 2005. I even bought my second Yo-Yo Ma CD -- "Soul of the Tango."

I remember listening to those CDs over and over again. They put me in a trance of relaxation as the miles and minutes of marathon training passed.

It was a huge thrill for me when I heard Yo-Yo Ma was going to be in Omaha, Nebraska, at the Holland Performing Arts Center in March. I bit the bullet on two expensive tickets and booked a hotel room.

Last night, along with my mom (someone who I thought would truly appreciate the experience), I sat mesmerized for two and a half hours as Yo-Yo Ma played his cello and Kathryn Scott accompanied him on the piano.

It was two people with two instruments and they created the most amazing music!

The concert hall was simple but architecturally amazing (picture above) and as Sandy Damm would say, "the acoustics in here are incredible!"

They started off with Schubert and for minutes I was simply awed by the sound of the cello. He played some Shostakovich (my least favorite piece) and then "Le Grand Tango" by Piazolla really got things rolling.

Yo-Yo and Kathryn would almost dance with their instruments -- swaying back and forth. The music literally moving them and figuratively moving everyone in the audience.

At one point in the concert, Yo-Yo and Kathryn would alternate parts and the piano/cello sounds became indistinguishable.

The start of the second half began with a modern piece that I didn't like at first but soon became more and more interesting. The ending of the piece introduced the true melody and no one wanted it to end. When the piece finally did end, the entire audience sat in stillness and silence -- no one wanting to break the precious silence.

Any musician can play loud, but only great musicians can play soft and make it even more captivating. Yo-Yo showed this off in the final piece of the program. The first two Franck movements weren't even recognizable to me but there were single notes that sounded like the voice of God. Passion, movement, simplicity all in a single note and single stroke of his bow.

The third movement introduced the part I recognized and the fourth movement was like hearing from an old friend as I have the fourth movement on one of my CDs.

Three standing ovations and two encores later the stage was empty and we left the concert hall.

We walked the two blocks back to our hotel knowing we had just heard one of the greatest musicians of all time and almost indisputably the greatest cello player in history.

The tough thing about crossing items off your "To-Do in Life List" is that you usually want to do them again.

I can't wait to hear Yo-Yo Ma again in person but until then, at least I have those CDs.

Enjoy the ride (and the music),
Damm