We have always claimed Hampton Terrace is well located. How about this? Yesterday afternoon there was a wedding directly across the street from us, in the intimate and historic Trinity Church. Turns out it was Yo Yo Ma’s daughter, Emily.
Emily married John Mistovich of Londonberry, New Hampshire. Both Emily and John graduated from Harvard, 
she with a law degree.
Our relationship with Yo Yo seems to be one of “close proximity.” From 1997 to 1999 Susan and I rented a 30-acre farm in Tyringham, MA, with a 1763 farmhouse. Yo Yo Ma bought the farm next door and constructed a beautiful home, designed to blend perfectly with the 240+ year old farmhouses in the neighborhood.
Ma is a fixture at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony. One summer, we received a call from our old Maoon friend, Claire, who said she heard Yo Yo was performing the Brandenberg Concerto in solo recital at Ozawa Hall. She said she planned to fly up to visit us, and hoped we could get tickets. This was with like….4 days notice. The concert had sold out 6 months prior. But I drove to the box office and waited for the window to raise at 10 am. I asked if, by miracle, any tickets had opened up for Yo Yo Ma. “Are you ever lucky!,” the woman said. “We decided to sell several circles of “stage seats.” I bought the first 3 seats available. Picture two small semi-circles of chairs framing the solist…and us in seats 1, 2 and 3 in the closest circle. We were literally 6 feet to the left of him as he
looked out over the audience. He looks to the left as he plays, with eyes closed and always a smile on his face. 2 hours of that. Can you imagine?
After the show, he greeted fans in the green room, and the line predictably, was a block long. As is his reputatoon, Yo Yo greeted and chatted with everyone in the line – seemingly in no hurry. Our friend Claire (last name to be withheld) gushed….”Yo Yo…..I want to have your baby!.”
We have seen Yo Yo many times since, both onstage and around the area. It is a phenomenon. Arguably the most famous classical music performer in the world….Yo Yo Ma acts like he has never met a stranger. He is warm, interested and fully engaged with everyone he meets.
Back to Trinity Church. The door to the church is always open. Hampton Terrace guests are welcome to roam around inside and check out this historic building – constructed by the Gilded Age families who populated Lenox and the Berkshires at the turn of the century.