Welcome To Yo-Yo’s Playhouse…Watch the superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma and many of his close friends from all over the world in action at a theatrical props warehouse in Brooklyn.

Ever on the lookout for stories that have one or more connections to our primary interests–community, collaboration, conservation–we are particularly fond of bifectas and trifectas, double-dips and triple plays. Versatility and eclecticism are signatures of Yo-Yo Ma, so no surprise that today we see a bit of all our interests combined in this story on the National Public Radio (a USA radio network funded by listeners, corporate/foundation donors, and taxpayers) website:

by ANASTASIA TSIOULCAS

When you’re lucky enough to have cellist Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble, some of the world’s premiere instrumentalists and composers, gather for an afternoon of offstage music making, you’ve got to think long and hard about where to put them. And we decided that the perfect match would be ACME Studio, a theatrical props warehouse in Brooklyn.

Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to see, hear and get to know many of the Silk Road musicians in other settings. You may recognize several of them from Tiny Desk Concerts and other collaborations with NPR Music — including members of Brooklyn Rider, Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, Iranian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, Spanish bagpiper Cristina Pato, American percussionist Shane Shanahan and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh from Syria.

As we’ve had the opportunity to forge those bonds over time, we’ve gotten to know the warm, generous-spirited personalities that come along with these immense talents. We thought that setting them loose in a props house, where they could pick and choose among the curiosities for little elements to bring into the camera frame, would bring those aspects of their personalities into sharper focus. What we wound up with was a magical afternoon of play in all senses of the word — not just having the chance to record these virtuosos and their instruments in a spirited performance of John Zorn’s Briel, but also to capture them (and us) having an immense amount of fun.

(And, if you can’t get enough, there’s a bonus video featuring a quartet of Silk Road percussionists creating deep, and irresistible, grooves.)