Sarabande
Africaine

The meeting of two musical greats

Yo-Yo Ma and Angelique Kidjo, one associated with the world of classical music, the other with more diverse musical genres, from world music to jazz to pop to afrobeats. Both demonstrate a rare curiosity and inspiration.

The meeting of two musical greats, Yo-Yo Ma and Angelique Kidjo, one associated with the world of classical music, the other with more diverse musical genres, from world music to jazz to pop to afrobeats. Both demonstrate a rare curiosity and inspiration.

Angelique Kidjo has made several forays into the world of “learned” music, notably collaborating with Philip Glass on Ife: Three Yoruba Song and most recently his Symphony #12: Lodger. Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Angelique Kidjo, accompanied by a pianist and percussionist, set out to create a concert that explores the times and places where classical and African music intersected. It’s an opportunity to rediscover stalwarts of the repertoire - such as Ravel’s Bolero, to which Kidjo has added lyrics - or to discover other rare pieces.

Yo-Yo and Angelique explore other musical intersections in the program, including sarabands from Bach, and Mozart’s unfinished opera Zaide about the African slave trade. Other pieces include readings of texts by Senghor and Cesaire, accompanied by the sound of Yo-Yo Ma’s cello.

Five-time Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo is one of the greatest artists in international music today, a creative force with sixteen albums to her name. Time Magazine has called her “Africa’s Premier Diva”, and named her one of the most influential people in the world for 2021. The BBC, Forbes Magazine, and The Guardian have all highlighted her importance to the people of the African continent. She is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum, the 2016 Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award, and the 2023 Polar Music Prize, among many others.

Appearances can be deceiving, but Yo-Yo is definitely Parisian! Issued from Chinese parents certainly, the young prodigy discovered a passion for cello, transmitted by his father, as soon as he reached the age of 4. A few years later, then a New Yorker, he studied at Julliard and Harvard. Winner of numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Polar Prize Music Prize, to name but a few, he has played for nine American presidents, most recently at the inauguration of President Biden. On stage, Yo-Yo plays his 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice, his 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius, and a 2003 instrument crafted by Moes & Moes.

Sarabande from G. F. Handel’s Suite in D Minor *

  1. Blewu (Bella Bellow *)

  2. Kelele (Angélique Kidjo *)

  3. Agolo (Angélique Kidjo *)

  4. Yemandja from Ifé: Three Yorùbá Songs (by Philip Glass, arr. Michael Riesman)

  5. Summertime (George Gershwin, arr. Angélique Kidjo & Jean Hebrail *)

  6. Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (African-American spiritual, arr. Harry T. Burleigh)

  7. Lamentations (from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Black/Folk Song Suite”)

  8. Goin’ Home (from Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony)

  9. Sarabande (from J.S. Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello)

  10. Ti (Citron Malavoi)

  11. Zelie (Angélique Kidjo *)

  12. L’Horloge (Charles Baudelaire)

  13. Lonlon (from Maurice Ravel’s Bolero *)

  14. La Foule (Ángel Cabral, arr. Angélique Kidjo & Jean Hebrail *)

  15. Aisha (from J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 5 *)

  16. Afrika (Angélique Kidjo & Jean Hebrail *)

  17. Pata Pata (Miriam Makeba *)

* Arrangement for cello by Mike Block