YO-YO MA & FRIENDS SHARE A COLLECTION OF NEW RECORDINGS
INSPIRED BY THE OUR COMMON NATURE’ PODCAST
AVAILABLE NOW FROM SONY CLASSICAL
It was only recently we explored Yo-Yo Ma’s latest Trio release (with Kavakos and Ax) which includes Beethoven’s masterpiece, his so-called “Ghost” Trio . And here is Ma again, but in.very different guise.
Read on:
HOSTED BY ANA GONZÁLEZ, THE SERIES FOLLOWS YO-YO MA ON HIS JOURNEY TO CONNECT WITH NATURE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES – LISTEN TO TRAILER:
(OCTOBER 8, 2025 – New York, NY) – Today, Sony Classical releases a collection of three new recordings from Yo-Yo Ma, works created with Viktor Orri Árnason, Eric Mingus, and Jennifer Kreisberg as part of ‘Our Common Nature,’ Yo-Yo Ma’s four-year journey in search of music and stories that celebrate our connection with the natural world. Released as a companion to the new podcast series of the same name, which premieres today, ‘Our Common Nature’ is a stirring call to imagine a future rooted in our shared humanity and a deeper connection to our planet.
I worry we’ve forgotten that we’re part of nature, how endlessly we are connected to one another and to the planet,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “’Our Common Nature’ reminds us that culture — our songs, our stories, our ways of living in balance — keeps these connections alive and can reinvigorate our love for the earth.
Accompanying this releases is a performance of Viktor Orri Árnason’s Earth Hymn,’ filmed live in the shadow of the Snæfellsnes glacier, featuring Yo-Yo Ma with a small choir singing words drawn from ancient Icelandic poetry — a plea to the world from the edge of a changing planet
‘Earth Hymn’ is from RITUAL, a large-scale performance conceived by director Arnbjörg María Danielsen, composer Viktor Orri Árnason, and Yo-Yo Ma, with text by Andri Snær Magnason and ancient Icelandic poets, which premiered at the 2024 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik.
The ‘Our Common Nature’ music collection also includes a raw, intimate cello/vocal duet in Eric Mingus’ ‘The Mill (Grinds My Bones)’, which carries listeners into the complex family stories buried in the Great Smoky Mountains, and Yo-Yo Ma’s collaboration with Jennifer Kreisberg in her stirring ‘naká·yè·ʔr sihskę̀·nęʔ (may it be that you have peace)’ — a prayer for a future in which we live in balance with one another and nature.
‘Our Common Nature’ is an invitation to listen more deeply to the world around us, to the land and the people and the ties that bind us together.
OUR COMMON NATURE – MUSIC COLLECTION TRACKLIST:
- Earth Hymn (Live from Snæfellsnes)
- The Mill (Grinds My Bones)
- naká·yè·ʔr sihskę̀·nęʔ (may it be that you have peace)
Also launching is the first episode of Our Common Nature, a new podcast series hosted by WNYC’s Ana González. The series follows Yo-Yo Ma’s journey in search of music and stories that celebrate our connection with the natural world and the people who inhabit it. New episodes air weekly through November 19. Subscribe to podcast here. For details on the podcast series and individual episodes, see below.
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OUR COMMON NATURE’ PODCAST DESCRIPTION
When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to the natural world. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo travels around the country to make music and meet people who have deep connections to the earth. Host Ana González joins him to uncover the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii.
The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world’s largest cave to hear the Louisville symphony orchestra perform. Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world” and the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent most of his career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.” Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.
EPISODE DETAILS
‘ACADIA: Yo-Yo Ma and the Wabanaki Play for the Dawn’
Ana opens the series with an introduction to Yo-Yo’s vision of music as a window to the infinitude of life, as the notes of Bach give way to leaves, birds, and sunlight. Yo-Yo visits Acadia National Park in Maine where Chris Newell, a drummer and member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, leads Yo-Yo and Wabanaki musicians in a musical performance that welcomes the dawn for the continent.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Lauren Stevens, and Chris Newell.
‘KENTUCKY: Yo-Yo Ma and the Louisville Orchestra perform in Mammoth Cave’
A cave can hold secrets that the world above ground never hears. We meet Louisville Orchestra’s music director, Teddy Abrams, as he leads its musicians into the planet’s longest cave system, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, to premiere his original composition, Mammoth. This episode takes us deep into the cave, once one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, to hear music that unlocks centuries of stories preserved by its seemingly endless walls. At the center is Jerry Bransford, who brought the Bransford name back to Mammoth Cave 80 years after his family was removed from their jobs in the cave and their homes surrounding it.
Featuring original music composed by Teddy Abrams, performed by the Louisville Orchestra, Davóne Tines, and Yo-Yo Ma.
‘THE SMOKIES: Mountains and Forgotten Family with Yo-Yo Ma’
The Smokies are home to some of America’s most treasured cultural traditions, born out of rich and layered histories. This episode tells two stories of people reclaiming their connections to the mountains and their ancestry. In Cherokee, NC, Lavita Hill, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, andMary Crowe, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, are working to restore the Cherokee name of the tallest mountain in the range. On another side of the mountains, Eric Mingus, son of jazz legend Charles Mingus, goes on an unintentional genealogical journey that inspires a musical composition, which he performs with Yo-Yo in a long-forgotten cemetery for the enslaved — reconnecting Eric with a lineage he never thought he’d find.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Eric Mingus, Rhiannon Giddens, and Jarrett Wildcatt.
‘ALASKA: Yo-Yo Ma and the Gwich’in Play for the Salmon’
Alaska is at the frontier of a changing planet, with disappearing salmon and dying glaciers and communities learning to navigate these losses. In this episode, Yo-Yo begins on stage in Fairbanks, Alaska, with drag queen/environmentalist Pattie Gonia and singer/songwriter Quinn Christophersonperforming a climate anthem, and ends at the 2024 Gwich’in Gathering in Circle, Alaska, sharing how the Gwich’in Nation uses centuries-old tools of music and discussion to speak with one voice in the face of a changing planet.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Quinn Christopherson, and Pattie Gonia, poetry by Princess Daazhraii Johnson, and traditional music by members of the Gwich’in Nation.
‘WEST VIRGINIA: Yo-Yo Ma and Coal’
West Virginia is too often seen by outsiders as a place defined simply by tragedy and coal. So, what keeps people tied to West Virginia? This episode begins with Yo-Yo eating lunch with coal miners and Kathy Mattea along the New River, singing songs that dig into histories of labor, family, and nostalgia. It then takes a road trip deep into coal country with third-generation coal miner Chris Saunders to explore how coal has both saved and threatened his life. Poet Crystal Good recites lines that channel rage into love for her home state. We end with Yo-Yo and Ana floating down the New River with a group of high school students, experiencing the timeless beauty of Appalachia.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Dom Flemons, and Kathy Mattea, and poetry by Crystal Good.
‘HAWAI‘I: Yo-Yo Ma on Moloka‘I’
On the southeast side of the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i, Miki‘ala Pescaia explains the concept of mana to Ana and Yo-Yo through a ceremony in a grove of kukui trees said to hold the bones and energy of the great spiritual leader Lanikaula. Miki‘ala then takes us to the other side of Moloka‘i, to the peninsula of Kalaupapa, the site of a former government-mandated quarantine for patients of leprosy, known today as Hansen’s disease. We focus on the story of Bernard Punikai‘a, one of the more than 8,000 people sent to die at Kalaupapa. Bernard’s friend Anwei Skinsnes Law tells the story of how Bernard found freedom, music, and dignity in a place surrounded by death.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma and Bernard Punikai‘a.
‘HAWAI‘I: Yo-Yo Ma and the Whales’
Yo-Yo has long dreamed of using his cello to communicate with whales. In Hawai‘i, he gets a chance. With help from the Polynesian VoyagingSociety and hula master Snowbird Bento, Yo-Yo first learns about the ancient art of Hawaiian chanting, which pierces space and time with the singers’ intentions. Ana and Yo-Yo board the legendary canoe hōkūleʻa with local sailors, marine biologists, and musicians to play cello for the whales through the hull of the ship, all in the red glow of the active eruption of the volcano Mauna Loa. The sun sets on the series with a big Hawaiian singalong, celebrating our connections to each other, the planet, and the infinitude of life.
Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma and Snowbird Bento.
Our Common Nature is a Sound Postings project, with support from Emerson Collective and Tambourine Philanthropies.
Released on OCTOBER 8, 2025.
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