Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Mais a Chinese-American cellist. Born in Paris, he spent his schooling years in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of five. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University and has enjoyed a prolific career as both a soloist performing with orchestras around the world and a recording artist. His 90+ albums have received 18 Grammy Awards...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCellist
Date of Birth7 October 1955
CityParis, France
CountryUnited States of America
When we enlarge our view of the world, we deepen our understanding of our own lives.
I have yet to find something that beats the power of being in love, or the power of music at its most magical.
When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner.
The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.
I want to investigate different cultures, to see how their identities and values affect their music. It's one way I can get to know our world, at least to a certain depth.
Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving.
Music has always been transnational;
Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound.
I love grocery shopping when I'm home. That's what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests.
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.
With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.
I don't always have a five-year plan. One thing you must do in life is keep your learning curve as high as possible.
One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you sign on to something, there will be issues of trust, deep trust, the way the members of a string quartet have to trust one another.
You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another.