Yo-Yo Ma and Lecolion Washington perform a pop-up concert in Boston’s Nubian Square. Washington is executive director of the Community Music Center of Boston. Photo: Lane Turner
“When Yo-Yo Ma and Lecolion Washington met at a party last October, … Ma found out that Washington, who is executive director of the arts education nonprofit Community Music Center of Boston, was a bassoonist,” writes Serena Puang in Friday’s (6/17) Boston Globe. At the party, Ma and Washington “air-played about 40 measures of [Mozart’s Sonata for Bassoon and Cello in B-flat major]. On Thursday, Ma made a surprise appearance with Washington … at the Dudley Cafe in Nubian Square. The duo had kept in touch and become fast friends. They performed the [Mozart] and a piece called ‘Lecolion Loops,’ which Washington [previously] commissioned from composer Daniel Bernard Roumain [and] recorded [on] a CD of bassoon pieces by Black composers…. Ma visited the music center and met the faculty and staff, student workers, and board members to learn about their work … with more than 4,000 [public school] students…. ‘Everybody calls us the best-kept secret,’ chief financial and operating officer Meghan Jasani told Ma… ‘I want us to be well known for what we do and that we provide music education to all students.’ ” Lecolion Washington wrote the introduction to the Symphony magazine article “Creating Authentic, Community-Driven Partnerships.”
