Yuka Honda, Nels Cline, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Sylvan Esso, Tune-Yards, Rufus Wainwright and More to Honor Yoko Ono in LA
A cross-generational mix of acts will celebrate Yoko Ono at Los Angeles’ The Broad on Saturday, August 8, during a program dubbed Yoko Only: The Music of Yoko Ono. Keyboardist Yuka Honda will serve as the event’s guest curator and perform a selection of Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band tracks as part of a supergroup that includes her husband, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, and Yo La Tengo. Guest vocalists and musicians like Theo Bleckmann, Finom, Emi Helfrich, Satomi Matsuzaki, Maggie Parkins, Patrick Shiroishi, Sleater-Kinney, Sylvan Esso, Tune-Yards and Rufus Wainwright will also join the ensemble throughout the night.
The all-star show coincides with Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, the 93-year-old artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Southern California. Organized in collaboration with Tate Modern, London, the exhibition will be on display at The Broad through October 11. The concert will take place at The Broad’s East West Bank Plaza and promises Ono material ranging from “the avant-garde to Billboard hits.”
“The programming for Yoko Ono: Music of The Mind will offer Angelinos opportunities to experience the breadth of Ono’s artistic production from music to performance to Fluxus activations that actively engage visitors. Yuka Honda was invited to curate Yoko Only because of her intimate knowledge of Yoko’s creative intentions that informed her music,” Broad Director of Audience Engagement Ed Patuto, who organized the programming for the exhibition, said in a statement.
Honda, meanwhile, added: “Music was the first thing on Yoko’s artistic mind; it began during her childhood and grew through many stages of her life. Like dandelion seeds, her ideas flew and landed in our hearts, opening our mind’s eye to new skies. On August 8th, we will unite to celebrate the flower garden she gave us.”
Honda produced Sean Lennon’s 1998 debut album, Into the Sun and performed with him as part of the duo Cibo Matto. They also dated for a time and remain close collaborators.

