Bobby McFerrin, photo by Stewart Cohen

Over the past 20 years, Bobby McFerrin has conducted some of the world’s finest orchestras, bringing a fresh energy to classical music. His collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock have topped the classical and jazz charts, and he founded the vocal ensembles Voicestra and Circlesongs, earning Grammy nods along the way. Combining formidable musical knowledge and technique with an unbridled enthusiasm and curiosity, McFerrin is so much more than “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

And a Bobby McFerrin performance is so much more than a concert.

“Joy. That’s always what I hope for,” McFerrin said of what he tries to bring to his live audiences.

The 60-year-old McFerrin’s musical journey starts with the influence of his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African-American soloist with New York’s famed Metropolitan Opera. The younger McFerrin spent the early part of his career in the family business as a journeyman pianist, and was captivated by keyboardist Keith Jarrett‘s entirely improvised solo performances. In the late 1970s, McFerrin began a six-year effort to create a method for improvised solo vocal performance, the format in which he began performing in 1983.

“I didn’t really know what solo voice sounded like,” McFerrin said. “My task was sort of to find a way of allowing the audience a way to hear the music, harmony, and rhythm.”