Celebrity Series of Boston and Yo-Yo Ma Partner to Simulcast His Sold-Out Bach Cello Suites Performance to More Than 20 Locations Across Massachusetts
Free statewide simulcasts from Wellfleet to North Adams bring Yo-Yo Ma’s worldwide Bach Project home to Massachusetts audiences
(For Immediate Release—September 10, 2025—Boston, MA) — Celebrity Series of Boston announces that Yo-Yo Ma’s sold-out November 21 Symphony Hall performance, We the People: Celebrating Our Shared Humanity Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach’s Cello Suites, will be simulcast free of charge to more than 20 venues across Massachusetts, from Wellfleet to North Adams. This special one-night-only event will allow thousands to experience Bach’s timeless music together, streaming live from Symphony Hall.
We the People is Yo-Yo Ma’s first-ever simulcast performance of Bach’s complete suites for solo cello in a single evening in Boston. It brings to his hometown music he has shared with communities on six continents, music he has offered it in moments of joy and times of need. For Ma, the Bach suites represent the power of culture to seek truth, build trust, and inspire collective action.
“This is more than a concert,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “It is an invitation to listen to one another and the world around us, to celebrate community, and to imagine a better future together.”
Although Symphony Hall tickets are sold out, the free simulcasts ensure that audiences statewide can join this historic evening. In addition, Celebrity Series and Yo-Yo Ma have distributed 1,000 complimentary tickets to young audiences and community partners across Boston, many of whom will be visiting Symphony Hall for the first time.
The Symphony Hall performance will be accompanied by a series of on-site activations that highlight the role of culture in creating and sustaining strong communities. Visitors will encounter exhibits and mural walls featuring reflections from Boston-area cultural partners alongside images from the Bach Project, Yo-Yo Ma’s 36-city, six continent journey celebrating culture’s power to connect. “Flower Seed Hopes & Dreams” cards will invite audiences to write and exchange personal messages of hope to exchange and plant in the world.
Yo-Yo Ma and the Celebrity Series have a long and fruitful history of collaborations, beginning with his debut in 1980, as part of a trio with violinist Young Uck Kim and pianist Emanuel Ax. Ma has appeared many times since, in seemingly every imaginable configuration, including unaccompanied cello, cello/piano duo, string and piano trio, string quartet and other chamber ensembles, as soloist with orchestra, with musicians from the Silkroad Ensemble, and with Goat Rodeo Sessions musicians. Performances with the Mark Morris Dance Group and Mikhail Baryshnikov in February 1999 were among his other signature artistic collaborations. In April 2017, he performed Bach Trios with mandolinist Chris Thile and double bassist Edgar Meyer; in February 2018, he performed a piano trio program focused on Brahms, with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos; and in March 2022, a trio program focused on Beethoven with the same colleagues. His most recent Celebrity Series appearance was in March 2024 in recital with longtime collaborator pianist Kathryn Stott.
SIMULCAST LOCATIONS
Admission to simulcast events is free, and seating is dependent on capacity at each location. Before the simulcast, select presenting organizations will host a gathering or other cultural activity to cultivate community and invite guests to reflect and share.
Admission to simulcast events is free, and seating is dependent on capacity at each location. Before the simulcast, select presenting organizations will host a gathering or other cultural activity to cultivate community and invite guests to reflect and share.
City of Boston
Rabb Hall - BPL Copley (Back Bay)
Youth Center for Music - Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Fenway)
Rabb Hall - BPL Copley (Back Bay)
Youth Center for Music - Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Fenway)
Greater Boston Area
The Foundry (Cambridge)
Newton Free Library (Newton)
Watertown Free Public Library (Watertown)
The Foundry (Cambridge)
Newton Free Library (Newton)
Watertown Free Public Library (Watertown)
Merrimack Valley & Cape Ann
Nevins Memorial Library (Methuen)
Shalin Liu Performance Center (Rockport)
Nevins Memorial Library (Methuen)
Shalin Liu Performance Center (Rockport)
South Coast & Cape Cod
New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford)
Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre (Wellfleet)
New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford)
Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre (Wellfleet)
Pioneer Valley
Forbes Library (Northampton)
Greenfield Public Library (Greenfield)
Hope For Youth Arts Center & Theatre in partnership with Springfield Public Library (Springfield)
Forbes Library (Northampton)
Greenfield Public Library (Greenfield)
Hope For Youth Arts Center & Theatre in partnership with Springfield Public Library (Springfield)
The Berkshires
Becket Athenaeum (Becket)
Latinas 413 (Pittsfield)
Linde Center for Music and Learning at the Tanglewood Learning Institute (Lenox)
Studio 9 at the Porches Inn (North Adams)
The simulcast will also be shown at The Pryde by LGBTQ Senior Housing and, in partnership with Shelter Music, Celebrity Series will share the simulcast with residents of homeless shelters and women's shelters.
Becket Athenaeum (Becket)
Latinas 413 (Pittsfield)
Linde Center for Music and Learning at the Tanglewood Learning Institute (Lenox)
Studio 9 at the Porches Inn (North Adams)
The simulcast will also be shown at The Pryde by LGBTQ Senior Housing and, in partnership with Shelter Music, Celebrity Series will share the simulcast with residents of homeless shelters and women's shelters.
Performance Details:
We the People: Celebrating our Shared Humanity: Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach’s Cello Suites
Friday, November 21, 8:00 PM
https://www.celebrityseries.org/productions/yo-yo-ma-cello-2025/
https://www.celebrityseries.org/live-performances/simulcast-we-the-people/
We the People: Celebrating our Shared Humanity: Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach’s Cello Suites
Friday, November 21, 8:00 PM
https://www.celebrityseries.org/productions/yo-yo-ma-cello-2025/
https://www.celebrityseries.org/live-performances/simulcast-we-the-people/
J.S. Bach | Suites 1-6 for unaccompanied cello, BWV 1007-1012
Produced by: Celebrity Series and THE OFFICE performing arts + film in collaboration with Sound Postings, the office of Yo-Yo Ma, and Opus 3 Artists.
With Support From: We the People is made possible by Barbara & Amos Hostetter and the Barr Foundation with additional support provided by the Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation.
ABOUT YO-YO MA
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing communities together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity.
Most recently, Yo-Yo began Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Our Common Nature follows the Bach Project, a 36-community, six-continent tour of J. S. Bach’s cello suites paired with local cultural programming. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of tradition to understand how music helps us to imagine and build a stronger society.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, where he began studying the cello with his father at age four. When he was seven, he moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education.
Yo-Yo has recorded more than 120 albums, is the winner of 19 Grammy Awards, and has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize. He has been a UN Messenger of Peace since 2006, and was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
yo-yoma.com
yo-yoma.com
ABOUT CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers—from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more—to Boston’s major concert halls for 87 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives, and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience—on stages, on streets, in neighborhoods—everywhere.
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers—from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more—to Boston’s major concert halls for 87 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives, and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience—on stages, on streets, in neighborhoods—everywhere.
Celebrity Series of Boston is grateful to the 2025/26 Season Sponsors Crescendo Donor Advised Fund and Susan & Michael Thonis, and to the many individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies whose support helps fulfill our mission to enrich and inspire our community through exceptional live performances. Individual and institutional supporters include Jill & David Altshuler, Leslie & Howard Appleby, Arts Consulting Group, the Barr Foundation through its ArtsAmplified initiative, Amy & Joshua Boger, Stephanie L. Brown, Michael & Adrianne Canning, Barbara & Amos Hostetter, Lizbeth & George Krupp, Liberty Mutual Foundation, Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation, Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, Mass Cultural Council, Eleanor & Frank Pao, Stephen C. Perry & Oliver Radford, Rabb Family Foundations, Reuben Reynolds, Royal Little Family Foundation, Schrafft Charitable Trust, Sally S. Seaver, PhD, Jeremy Silverman & Mary Sutherland, Belinda Termeer, Susan & Michael Thonis, Dorothy Altman Weber, in memory of Stephen Weber, Anonymous (3), and many others.
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