Name: Yo-Yo Ma & Kayhan Kalhor: One Night Only
Start: 2025-10-25T19:30:00-04:00
Location: Ferguson Center for the Arts

Yo-Yo Ma & Kayhan Kalhor: One Night Only
October 25, 2025 7:30 pm
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3
Kayhan Kalhor: Venus in the Mirror (Double Concerto for Cello and Kamancheh)
Co-presented with the Ferguson Center for the Arts

Virtuoso and composer Kayhan Kalhor composed Venus in the Mirror as an “ode to peace and a celebration of a 25-year friendship with Yo-Yo Ma.” The double concerto for cello, kamancheh (Persian spiked fiddle), and orchestra reflects on “the beauty that lies hidden in the balance of what it means to be human.” On the first half of the program, Eric Jacobsen and the VSO will immerse the audience in the lush sounds of Brahms’ majestic Third Symphony.

Celebrating his fifth season, Eric Jacobsen serves as the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s twelfth Music Director, the Macon & Joan Brock Chair. He is also artistic director and co-founder of The Knights, the uniquely adventurous NYC-based chamber orchestra, and Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic. In addition to conducting, Eric is a dedicated chamber musician (cello) and is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.
Yo-Yo Ma’s career is testament to his faith in culture’s ability to generate trust and understanding — from his iconic performances and recordings to original undertakings such as the Bach Project and Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Yo-Yo was born to Chinese parents in Paris, where he began to study the cello with his father when he was four. Three years later, he moved with his family to the United States, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education.
Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso and the world’s leading player of the kamancheh, the Persian spike fiddle. Through his many collaborations, he has been instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West and remains a creative force in today’s global music scene. His performances of traditional Persian music and innovative cross-cultural projects have captivated audiences worldwide.
The kamancheh or spike fiddle, the ancient bowed string instrument of Iran, is ancestor to most bowed instruments throughout Asia and Europe. It has a small hollowed belly made of walnut or mulberry wood with a thin stretched skin covering and a conical shaped neck. The modern kamancheh has four strings, generally tuned in fourths or fifths, and is held vertically.