The Bryan Series®

Some Wanted "More Music, Less Talk," but Response to Yo-Yo Ma is Strong

Bryan Series subscribers were quite positive about the Yo-Yo Ma program Oct. 26, and they offered some very constructive comments in the post-event e-mail survey.

 

About 60% of the subscribers who purchased tickets to the bonus event responded to the survey.  79% of respondents were very satisfied with the speaker's presentation and 72% were very satisfied with the event overall.

 

About 350 comments were offered, falling into several major categories:

• 27% of respondents said they wanted to hear more music and less talk (for the record, Yo-Yo Ma spoke for 58 minutes and played for 19 minutes, with a 20-minute Q&A after the presentation).
• 11% said they had difficulty hearing the presentation.
• 6% said the program, or some element of it, was "too long."

Oh, and 99% of respondents said they would be interested in participating in focus bonus programs.

 

Some thoughts:  Yo-Yo Ma agreed to present a lecture with a limited solo performance as part of a two-day trip to N.C. with a concert on the second night.  As he indicated in the sound check prior to the program, this was his first full-fledged lecture--a rarity, indeed.  The sound system was judged satisfactory by Yo-Yo Ma prior to the event, however, his generally soft voice did not project as well as we hoped and we regret that.  In terms of the length of the program, the speaker is in control once the presentation starts.  We would love to have a great program that runs 75 or 80 minutes each time.

 

Among the many positive comments we received was this one:

 

"Yo-Yo Ma's warm and humble stage presence and the way he used the Bach and his cello to present the message made me feel as if he were speaking directly to me.  He helped me gain greater understanding of the power and importance of music flowing in and through all.  I don't doubt that was the experience for most of those in the audience."

 

Thanks again for your post-event survey responses!

Gaining Solace from the Music of Yo-Yo Ma

I was a little nervous about seeing Yo-Yo Ma’s lecture and solo performance Oct. 26, a bonus event in the Bryan Series. More accurately, I was nervous about seeing Ma in an auditorium full of 2,400 people who all know a great deal more about his work, and music in general, than I do.

A few days ago, I was joking with one of my co-workers that I could identify exactly one cello piece, and that was only because Ma had played it in a season two episode of “The West Wing.” I also think of this particular piece as “that Galapagos song,” because it also appears (again performed by Ma) in one of my favorite movies, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” So, an aficionado of classical music I am not. I hoped that, if I was very, very lucky, Ma would play my two-and-a-half minute Galapagos/West Wing song, and I, too, could hum along.

To my very pleasant surprise, Ma played the piece – the prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major – several times throughout the evening. Apparently, it was the first piece he learned to play as a four-year-old child. For Ma, the piece was both a teacher and a Rorshach test, changing as he himself grew and learned.

Ma related his somewhat rude awakening in college, when a teacher told him, “You play the instrument very well, but haven’t found your voice.” Ma said that he had to learn not to rely on instinct and technical perfection, but instead to pursue the emotional thread that the composer intended.

Later, as he created public television documentaries about other artists and collaborated with world musicians on the Silk Road Project, Ma says he learned even more about why and how they used certain techniques: Bach’s silent pauses in the music, Haydn’s surprise emotional peaks, a bagpiper’s drone. He clearly approaches his music intellectually, and I think that’s what keeps his music fresh after 50 years. Every time Ma played the Bach suite last night, it was a completely different piece of music.

When he first began performing the Bach Cello Suites professionally, Ma said he would get letters from people telling him how the selections gave them emotional comfort during difficult times. “I thought, that’s odd,” he said. “How could a piece of music have that transformative property? How could it give you solace? How could it heal?”

Well, this nervous classical music-novice may not have needed “healing” last night, but Ma’s performance certainly brought me a measure of solace, not to mention a greater appreciation for the subtleties of a piece of music I thought I knew so well.

--Sara Butner

Update:  Yo-Yo Ma a hit in Charlotte concert.

Krugman: Health Care Reform will Pass and will Work

In his New York Times op-ed column Oct. 26, Paul Krugman expresses his confidence that Congress will send a health-care bill to President Obama and that America will have reform after decades of consideration.

Citing Massachusetts' experience with reform, Krugman believes the national plan will have broad public support once it's in place.  Chances for success will be greater if it has "a real public option to keep insurers honest," he says.

He writes:  "The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed."

"This thing is going to work."

Quindlen Assesses Obama in Nov. 2 Newsweek Cover Story

Anna Quindlen, who spoke on "Choices and Changes" in the Bryan Series in April, assesses Barack Obama's presidency to date in Newsweek's Nov. 2 cover story.

She writes:  "This president promised to tackle the big stuff, swiftly, decisively, and in a fashion about which he was unequivocal, and voters took him at his word a year ago ... He is methodical, thoughtful, cerebral, a believer in consensus and process. In an incremental system, Barack Obama is an incremental man ... The president is a person of nuance. But on both ends of the political number line, nuance is seen as wishy-washy ...That's really how our government works, by inches."

She concludes by challenging readers: "So if the American people want the president to be more like the Barack Obama they elected, maybe they should start acting more like the voters who elected him, who forcibly and undeniably moved the political establishment to where it didn't want to go."

Quindlen, the former columnist, now writes occasional stories for the magazine.

Toni Morrison Receives Norman Mailer Lifetime Achievement Award

Toni Morrison, who spoke in the Bryan Series in March 2007, received the first lifetime achievement award presented by the Norman Mailer Writers Colony Oct. 20.

The awards dinner in New York City attracted literary lions such as former Bryan Series speakers Salman Rushdie and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

The writers colony is a nonprofit organization founded earlier this year, located at the home of the late author and Village Voice founder in Provincetown, Mass. It aims to help nurture writers in the spirit of Mailer, who died in November 2007 at the age of 84.

Among her many awards, Morrison is one of five Nobel Prize winners to speak in the Bryan Series including Paul Krugman, who will present a talk on global economic challenges Nov. 3.

Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project Promotes Multicultural Exchanges

In addition to being one of the world's great cellists, Yo-Yo Ma is a collaborator, innovator and educator.  In that spirit, he established the Silk Road Project in 1998.

The project has a goal of connecting the world's neighborhoods by bringing together artists and audiences around the globe.

It takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading routes, which were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between Asia and the West for nearly 3,000 years.

"I have always been more curious about what joins people together than what separates them," Yo-Yo Ma said about Silk Road.

When he speaks in the Bryan Series Monday, Oct. 26, expect to hear more about his passion for connecting people through the arts and particularly through the project.

The event is sold out.

Join the Friends of the Library for a Paul Krugman Discussion Nov. 1

Want to have a chance to discuss Paul Krugman's viewpoints as expressed in his books and newspaper columns?

The Friends of the Guilford College Library are hosting a conversation about Krugman with faculty members Ken Gilmore and Deena Burris Sunday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m. in the Carnegie Room of Hege Library on campus.  The discussion is open to the public at no charge.  Refreshments will be served.

Gilmore, an associate professor of political science, and Burris, an assistant professor of business management, will center the conversation on "Paul Krugman’s World View."  They will draw from Krugman’s latest books and his columns from The New York Times.

Tickets for Krugman’s lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 3, are available at the Greensboro Coliseum Advance Box Office, online at Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

Subscribers Very Positive about Trudeau Program Experience

Bryan Series subscribers' response to the Garry Trudeau program that opened this year's series was overwhelmingly positive.  For the first time, subscribers received a post-event survey and more than 33% (a total of 194) were returned.

89.3% of respondents were very satisfied with Trudeau's presentation and 88.6% were very satisfied with the overall experience.  A small number of respondents were moderately satisfied and a handful were dissatisfied.

Subscribers were invited to comment about the event, and 183 comments were received. They focused on the length of the program (90-plus minutes, longer than average), traffic control and parking with a concert at the Coliseum Complex, the format of the Q&A session (obviously an important aspect of the program for our patrons) and the use of the screen by Trudeau to project some cartoon images (not readable from a distance).

We were particularly pleased to hear from one subscriber, who wrote, "The Bryan Series is one of the finest cultural offerings in Greensboro. Being a native of Southern California and only living here five years I greatly appreciate the type of sophistication your series continues to bring our city."

Thanks to all of you for your constructive responses, which our staff will take into account in preparing for future events.

You are always welcome to write us at thebryanseries@guilford.edu.

--Ty Buckner

NYT Review: Let Me Down Easy is "Continually Engaging"

Anna Deavere Smith's "Let Me Down Easy," at Second Stage Theater in New York City through Nov. 8, is "continuing engaging," Charles Isherwood wrote in a New York Times review of the play Oct. 8.

Smith, who speaks in the Bryan Series Feb. 28, "has created a loosely framed but vivid compendium of life experienced at its extremes, drawn about equally from the suffering and the ministering sides of the story," he writes.

Written, conceived and performed by Smith, the show focuses on health care in America from the perspective of a variety of well-known and not-so-well-known characters.

Gorbachev, Tutu Congratulate Obama on Nobel Peace Prize

Former Bryan Series speakers and Nobel Peace Prize recipients Mikhail Gorbachev and Desmond Tutu congratulated President Obama on receiving the Nobel Prize Oct. 9.

Gorbachev, the former Soviet Union leader who won the prize in 1990, said, "Your efforts have helped to bring about a significant change in the international climate. I feel close affinity to your vision of the global world and of relations among nations. Implementing it will require strong will, statesmanship and mastery of communication."  More coverage of his comments are here.

Tutu, the archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said, "It is a very imaginative and somewhat surprising choice. It is wonderful.  He has had a very significant impact. It (Obama's presidency) has changed the temperature and almost everybody feels a little more hopeful about the world."  More coverage of his comments are here.

Gorbachev spoke in the Bryan Series in October 2004, and Tutu, in November 2005.