Rooted in the belief that art and nature have the power to connect, inspire, and enrich our lives, these films bring music into the natural world, inviting us to slow down, notice the beauty around us, and consider our relationship with the world we share.
The complete first suite, played live in the Smokies. Yo-Yo donated his earnings from the film to EarthPercent, which helps artists and the music industry fund the organizations doing the most about the climate emergency.
Yo-Yo's wish for 2026: that we can treat one another with dignity. Filmed on the tallgrass prairie an hour from home.
Viktor Orri Árnason's Earth Hymn, filmed live in the shadow of the Snæfellsnes glacier: a plea to the world from the edge of a changing planet. From RITUAL, conceived by director Arnbjörg María Danielsen with Árnason and Yo-Yo Ma, with text adapted from the Völuspá.
"I've spent decades trying to get this piece right. At some point, I found a way in: in the same way that a river begins far before we meet it, I imagine this music starting long before I play the first note; I just have to join it." — Yo-Yo Ma
The Prélude from Suite No. 2, played amid the melting permafrost, where Yo-Yo was brought by Princess Daazhraii Johnson. "If we find the time to truly listen, we might recognize ourselves in the melting permafrost or the fallen birch, but we might also recognize ourselves in the songs of the birds."
Played for the team rebuilding Notre-Dame after the fire: cultural workers using their hands, their heads, and their hearts to forge the knowledge of the past into a better future.