Not Our First Goat Rodeo: Yo-Yo Ma / Stuart Duncan / Edgar Meyer / Chris Thile with guest Aoife O’Donovan August 10

Saratoga Performing Arts Center excitedly announced Yo Yo Ma will be performing a “goat rodeo” on August 10th at 8 pm. Goat Rodeo literally means when things go absolutely wrong, and the musicians go with the flow; as you will note from the video below, it is far from a goal rodeo whenever these musicians share the stage.

An astounding group of virtuosos – Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Edgar Meyer on bass, and Chris Thile on mandolin — reunite live for the first time in nearly a decade. Joined by featured vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, the lively talents of these exceptional artists come together on stage to create a singular sound that’s part composed, part improvised, and uniquely American — music so complex to pull off that the group likens it to a goat rodeo, airplane pilots’ nickname for a situation in which many different things need to go right to avoid disaster. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, this concert presents “unlikely musicians on unlikely instruments in concerts … that [are] part blues, part bluegrass and a smidgen of Bach.” 

2011’s Grammy-winning Goat Rodeo Sessions was the first step in this path-breaking collaboration, producing music that NPR’s World Cafe called “organic yet composed in a way that only four deeply talented, in-tune musicians could make it,” hinting “at Appalachia, Chinese classical, Celtic, and jazz influences.” Now, the group reunites this summer to perform a collection of all-new music, accompanied by a new album to be released in spring 2020 by Sony Masterworks. These five musicians’ diverse traditions and experiences intersect to create a compelling sound that is at once global and American, a shared voice that speaks powerfully to the American experience.

Tickets go on sale to the public March 9 at 10am at SPAC’s website.