Alum gets Yo-Yo Ma as a stand partner after last-minute sub

Cleveland Institute of Music alum and cellist Genevieve Tabby (BM ’13, Kraut/Geber) was about to go on stage for the second half of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s June 10 concert, when she learned she’d have a new stand partner. And it would be Yo-Yo Ma.

Yo-Yo Ma was the soloist for the first half of the program and decided, in a last minute change, to join the cello section for a performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

“I could not believe that I was sitting next to Yo-Yo Ma, playing the same music with him and getting to converse with him. It was a very surreal experience for me and I will never forget it,” Tabby told the Citizen Musician Fellows Blog. “It was so much fun, and I really could feel his energy. We were making some gestures during the pieces and winking at each other during certain moments that were very nice. It was really great.”

This is Tabby’s first season with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She earned an undergraduate degree at CIM in 2013 where she studied with Stephen Geber and Melissa Kraut and is currently pursuing her graduate degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she studies with Hans Jorgen Jensen.

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Photo: csosoundsandstories.org