Yo-Yo Ma[a] (born October 7, 1955) is a French-Americancellist.[1] Born toChinese[2] parents inParis, he was regarded as achild prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, Ma moved with his family toBoston and later toNew York City, where he continued his cello studies at theJuilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education atHarvard University. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, recorded more than 92 albums, and received 19Grammy Awards.
Ma's mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist, composer[8] and professor of music at NanjingNational Central University (now relocated inTaoyuan,Taiwan; predecessor of the present-dayNanjing University andSoutheast University). They both migrated from theRepublic of China to France during theChinese Civil War. Ma's sister, Ya tong sang, played the viola and piano professionally before obtaining a medical degree from Harvard and becoming a pediatrician.[9] The family moved to Boston when Ma was seven.[10][11]
From the age of three, Ma played thedrums,violin,piano, and laterviola, but settled on the cello in 1960 at age four. When three-year-old Yo-Yo said he wanted a big instrument, his father went to see Etienne Vatelot, a foremost violin maker in Paris who, after a chat, lent him a 1/16th cello. He jokes that his first choice was thedouble bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up the cello instead. While Hiao-Tsiun handled much of his son's early music education, he eventually conceded that Yo-Yo required a more skilled teacher, and signed his son up for cello lessons with the renowned Mme Michelle Lepinte. He began performing before audiences at age five and played for presidentsDwight D. Eisenhower andJohn F. Kennedy when he was seven.[12][13] At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister[14] in an event introduced byLeonard Bernstein. In 1964,Isaac Stern introduced them onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and they performed the Sonata of Sammartini. After moving to New York, Ma enrolled at theJuilliard School, where he studied under renowned cellistLeonard Rose, and attendedTrinity School in New York but transferred to theProfessional Children's School, where he graduated at age 15.[15] He appeared as a soloist with theHarvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance ofTchaikovsky'sRococo Variations.
Ma attendedColumbia University, but dropped out. He later enrolled atHarvard College. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of cellist, conductor and Ma's childhood heroPablo Casals. He spent four summers at theMarlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love withMount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor during his first summer there in 1972.[16]
Even before that time, Ma gained fame and performed with many of the world's major orchestras. He has also playedchamber music, often with pianistEmanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship from their days at Juilliard. Ma received hisbachelor's degree inanthropology from Harvard in 1976,[17] and in 1991 received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.[18]
In addition to his prolific musical career, Ma collaborated in 1999 with landscape architects to design a Bach-inspired garden. Known as the Music Garden, it interprets Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello (BWV 1007), where the garden's sections were designed to correspond with the suite's dance movements.[19] Toronto enthusiastically embraced the design, originally planned for Boston, and it was subsequently built in theHarbourfront neighborhood.[20]
Ma was named Peace Ambassador by then-UN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan in January 2006.[21] He is a founding member of the influential Chinese-AmericanCommittee of 100, which addresses the concerns of Americans of Chinese heritage.[22]
In 2010, Ma was named Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant of theChicago Symphony Orchestra. He launched the Citizen Musician initiative partnership in partnership with the orchestra's music director,Riccardo Muti.[28] Also in 2010, he appeared on a solo album by guitaristCarlos Santana,Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time, playing alongside Santana and singerIndia Arie on aBeatles classic,While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
In 2015, Ma performed with singer-songwriter and guitaristJames Taylor on three tracks of Taylor's chart-topping albumBefore This World:You And I Again. In 2019, Ma directed the orchestra at the annual Youth Music Culture Guangdong. Ma is represented by the independent artist management firmOpus 3 Artists.[29] Ma contributed to the charity tribute albumThe Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021, backingMiley Cyrus on a cover of the Metallica song "Nothing Else Matters".[30]
Ma formed his own collective, theSilk Road Ensemble, named after the route across Asia which for more than 2,000 years was used for trade between Europe and China. His goal was to bring together musicians from diverse countries that were historically linked via theSilk Road.[32] The ensemble's recordings are issued on theSony Classical label. He also founded the Silk Road Connect, an educational pilot program for children from middle schools in the United States, including New York City.[33]
Yo-Yo Ma has been referred to by critics as "omnivorous" and possesses an eclectic repertoire.[34] In addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire, he has recordedBaroque pieces usingperiod instruments; Americanbluegrass music; traditionalChinese melodies, including the soundtrack to the filmCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; thetangos of Argentinian composerAstor Piazzolla; Brazilian music, recording traditional and contemporary songs composed byAntônio Carlos Jobim andPixinguinha; a collaboration withBobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified by McFerrin's improvisation); and the music of modernminimalistPhilip Glass, in such works as the 2002Naqoyqatsi.
Ma's primary performance instrument is theDavidov cello, made in 1712 byAntonio Stradivari.[7] It was previously owned byJacqueline du Pré, who bequeathed it to him. Du Pré voiced her frustration with the cello's "unpredictability", but Ma attributed du Pré's sentiment to her impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player.[36] Prior to theDavidov, he performed on a 1722Matteo Gofriller cello which he used for much of his early career. The instrument was previously in the possession of the French cellistPierre Fournier.[37]
Ma also plays on a 1733Domenico Montagnana cello, named the "Petunia". In 2005, it was valued at US$2.5 million (US$4 million in 2024 prices). A student approached Ma after one of his classes inSalt Lake City and asked if the cello had a nickname. Ma replied, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" The student chose Petunia, and it stuck.[38] In 1999, Ma inadvertently left the cello in a taxicab in New York City, but it was quickly returned undamaged.[39] That year, when its neck was damaged duringX-ray baggage inspection, he borrowed thePawle Stradivarius cello from theChimei Museum for a concert inTaiwan. The damage was repaired in time, but Ma played bothPetunia andPawle in the concert nonetheless.[40][41][42]
Ma also owns a modern cello made by Peter and Wendela Moes of Warrenton, Virginia, one ofcarbon fiber by theLuis and Clark company of Boston,[43] and aSamuel Zygmuntowicz cello. According to Zygmuntowicz, he "wants to give (Ma) a reason to leave his Montagnana at home."[44]
He performedJohn Williams's "Air and Simple Gifts" at thefirst inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along withItzhak Perlman (violin),Gabriela Montero (piano), andAnthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet played live, the music, played simultaneously over speakers and on television, was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma said, "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."[47]
On May 3, 2009, Ma performed the world premiere ofBruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind" for solo cello and two percussionists with John Ferrari and Ayano Kataoka at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York City. The work is based on a poetic description written for the composer of the evolution of brain into mind by neuroscientistAntonio Damasio. A film of brain scans provided byHanna Damasio, and other images, were coordinated with the performance.
On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared with Canadian prime ministerStephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a fan ofThe Beatles, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on cello. On October 16, 2011, Ma performed at the memorial ofSteve Jobs at Stanford University'sMemorial Church.[49]
In 2011, Ma performed with American dancerCharles "Lil Buck" Riley in the United States and in China at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.[50]
On September 9, 2015, Ma performed all six of Bach's cello suites at theRoyal Albert Hall (London) as part of theBBC Proms season.
On September 12, 2017, Ma performed all six of Bach's cello suites at theHollywood Bowl (Los Angeles). After the first three suites, there was a "ten-minute pause" (as the Bowl video screen described it). The audience of around 17,000 also heard him play an encore, a tribute to "cellist Pablo Casals, who as a 13-year-old in 1890 discovered an old copy of the Bach suites in a secondhand music store, bringing them to modern attention. Ma's memorable last words were, "If there are any 13-year-here—don't throw anything away."[52]
On November 11, 2018, Ma performed at theArc de Triomphe in Paris, with violinistRenaud Capuçon, in front of a crowd of world leaders during a ceremony marking thecentenary of the armistice that ended World War I.[53]
On June 20, 2019, Ma performed the BachComplete Cello Suites atJay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. The free performance attracted what might have been his largest audience, with a pavilion capacity of 11,000, and many thousands more listening from surroundingMillennium Park.
On September 14, 2021, Ma again performed Bach's six cello suites at theHollywood Bowl, this time without intermission, pausing only briefly for applause between suites, and to announce his dedications for two of them.
On December 7, 2024, on theReopening of Notre-Dame in Paris, Ma performed the prelude of the First Cello Suite from Bach.[59]
Ma appeared as himself in an episode ("My Music Rules") of the animated children's television seriesArthur, and onThe West Wing (the episode "Noël"), where he played the prelude to Bach'sCello Suite No.1 at a Congressional Christmas party. He made five appearances onSesame Street, all of which first aired during the show's 17th season in 1986. He appeared inThe Simpsons episode "Puffless", where he played a serenade and theme music. Ma's likeness appeared in anotherSimpsons episode, "Missionary: Impossible", but he was played by regularSimpsons cast memberHank Azaria rather than Ma himself. Ma appeared twice onMister Rogers' Neighborhood, developed a friendship with creator and hostFred Rogers, and later received the inaugural Fred Rogers Legacy Award.
Ma was often invited to press events byApple Inc. andPixar CEOSteve Jobs, performed during the company's major events, and appeared in a commercial for theMacintosh computer. Ma's Bach recordings were used in a memorial video released by Apple on the first anniversary of Jobs's death.[60]
Ma was a guest on the "Not My Job" segment ofWait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.[61]
Since 1978, Ma has been married to Jill Hornor, an arts consultant.[70] They have two children,Nicholas and Emily.[11][71] Although he personally considers it the "worst epithet he's ever faced," he was "tagged" in 2001 as "Sexiest Classical Musician" byPeople.[72] He has continued to receive such accolades over the years, including fromAARP in 2012, when Ma was named one of the "21 sexiest men over 50".[73]
According to research presented by Harvard professorHenry Louis Gates Jr. for the PBS seriesFaces of America, a relative hid the Mafamily genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during theCultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back 18 generations to the year 1217. The genealogy was compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma'sgeneration name, Yo, was decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.[74][75] DNA research revealed that Ma is distantly related to actressEva Longoria.[76]