Yo-Yo Ma has been searching all his life for how to live. The We Are Water: A Northeast Celebration concert that celebrated the reopening of the was one more step in that ongoing quest for knowledge from communities whose traditions offer other ways of seeing the world.
Ma, a co-founder of Silk Road Ensemble, has made a career building bridges between cultures and musical styles. This series of performances celebrating the waters of the North is a continuation of these efforts. He partnered with artists from the Wabanaki community鈥攁 collaboration that began in 2021 when Ma met artist and educator Chris Newell 鈥96鈥攖o learn their stories, traditions and life lessons. Together they created We Are Water, a work inspired by the region and commissioned for the reopening of the Hop in October.
鈥淲e are all water,鈥 Ma said in a interview. 鈥淚t could be a very dangerous place, or it could be the place that gives us, literally, life. It鈥檚 both. And if we鈥檙e water and we鈥檙e nature and we鈥檙e both creative and destructive at the same time, then that makes me think differently about who I am and how I should live.鈥
Indigenous artists Newell 鈥96, Jeremy Dutcher, Mali Obamsawin 鈥18, Roger Paul and Lauren Stevens were some of Ma鈥檚 partners on the project, as were other collaborators such as fiddler Ida Mae Specker and Icelandic author Andri Sn忙r Magnason. Together they curated a body of songs and stories that explore how the waters of the North鈥攆rom Kwenitekw (the Connecticut River) to Supeq (the ocean) and Punkik (the Arctic North)鈥攃onnect us to each other and to our past, present, and future.
Newell, a Passamaquoddy musician and the Native American Cultural Director at the University of Connecticut, described the project as a tribute and a call to action: a way of paying credence to waterways at a time when, as he put it, 鈥渙ur water is in crisis.鈥 Returning to 大香蕉视频 held special meaning for him, especially in working with Native students. 鈥淲e were able to involve not only members of the Native Americans at 大香蕉视频 student organization as companion singers, but also the H艒k奴pa`a students, who greeted Yo-Yo at the sunrise concert and performed with us.鈥
The day before the sunrise gathering, Ma reflected on how the river would become part of the music, 鈥渋f the music has already started and the river is flowing and you join the river 鈥 you鈥檙e already part of it.鈥 He compared it to the sound in a recording or recital hall where 鈥渢here鈥檚 the energy of every single person in the room and the air and the air conditioning or the heating or whatever else is there, and you join it. A room is filled with living people. Nature is filled with living things. And whatever happens, you include it.鈥
On the morning of the performance, the artists gathered on the banks of the Connecticut River north of campus in Hanover to greet the sunrise with songs and gratitude. More than 300 people鈥攊ncluding more than 75 大香蕉视频 students鈥攂raved the morning frost and assembled on the shore or in boats floating beside the site-specific performance. The project brought together artists, students, faculty, and community members in a shared reflection on our relationship to water.
A , Ma and his collaborators developed the work during his residency last month and engaged with 大香蕉视频 students and faculty members through class visits and a house brunch. We Are Water was a collaboration with the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies, Native American Program, Department of Anthropology, Department of Music, Department of Geography, Sustainability Office, and 大香蕉视频 House Communities.
鈥淲e commissioned We Are Water as part of the Hop鈥檚 reopening because it embodies what we hoped this moment would be鈥攁 work that touches every part of our community,鈥 said , Howard Gilman 鈥44 Executive Director. 鈥淚t gave us new ways to think about our home here in the Upper Valley, our relationship to the river and the earth, and the role the arts can play in shaping how we see the world around us.鈥
On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 18, in a sold-out Spaulding Auditorium, the concert featured a mix of Indigenous and Western traditions鈥攆rom classical music and folk songs to Wabanaki myths and Icelandic lore.
鈥淭here was no musical director,鈥 says Specker, a fiddler who grew up in southern Vermont, 鈥渞ather we were all attempting this fusion of musical, different musical backgrounds, different styles, different skill sets, different understandings of rhythm and melody and timing and keys. All of us were trying to find common ground together.鈥
Ma performed a Bach medley on the cello as well as duets with Dutcher, Obamsawin, and Stevens.
鈥淟ike water, like nature,鈥 Ma said in his welcoming speech, 鈥渨e humans are also both destructive and creative. Only when we choose creativity do we become stronger, more resilient, more collaborative. Our survival cannot be separated from that of a planet that gives us life.鈥
Roger Paul sang of Aputamkin, the sea monster from Native American mythology who lives in the Passamaquoddy Bay and who serves as a cautionary tale against taking the waters for granted. Aputamkin was brought to life through puppets by Shoestring Theater.
Specker took the stage to reflect on the flooding and drought in the Upper Valley region. She lamented the view of rivers only as a commodity and a resource to be taken from. 鈥淚 want to be part of carrying forth this wisdom that鈥檚 being generously offered this evening, combining it with creativity and forging a pathway forward,鈥 she said.
Later, Specker reflected more broadly on the role of music itself: 鈥淢usic really has the power to emotionally bring people in large groups of people into that collective dream state where we can really imagine in a completely depoliticized way, how we can leave a healthy environment, a healthy planet, to the next seven generations.鈥
Icelandic poet and author Magnason, who grew up in Hanover and considers it his second home, shared stories from his book On Time and Water, blending myth and science to reveal how glaciers are melting away. 鈥淭o understand science I needed mythology, to be rational, I needed poetry, to understand the future I connected to the past,鈥 he told the audience.
As the evening drew to a close, artists joined together in songs of hope: Only Her Rivers Run Free, Amazing Grace, and a final Honor Song with audiences singing along.
The concert ended on a hopeful note with Roger Paul calling on people to give thanks, connect with their past and take responsibility. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all connected to water. We鈥檙e all connected by music. We鈥檙e all connected by life and creation.鈥
Moments later, the evening spilled out into the Hop Plaza, where Ida Mae Specker鈥檚 band led a jubilant square dance, watched over by a giant mother puppet figure. The revelers braided hands and crisscrossed the plaza in wild and rippling paths, seeming at times to have finally become the waters.
