The world's top Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Yo-Yo Ma), from his extensive and diverse music career, it is not difficult to understand that he constantly seeks and listens to different ways of dialogue, and his personal artistic pursuits The attitude of growth, innovation and change. Whether performing new music or familiar repertoire, performing chamber music with friends, interacting with young musicians and audiences, or exploring cultures and musical styles beyond the Western classical tradition, Yo-Yo Ma strives to find elements that stimulate his imagination.
Yo-Yo Ma’s tight concert schedule includes concert performances with world-renowned orchestras, solo recitals, chamber music, etc. Collaborating with different performers can bring him different inspirations. Musicians he has collaborated with include Ickes, Barenboin, Eisenbach, Pamela Frank, Jeffrey Kahane, Young Uck Kim, Laredo, Bobby McFerrin, Egger Meyer, Mark Morris, O'Connor, Peter Serkin, Stein, Stoltzman, Kathryn Stott wait. Through interaction with musicians, transcend the boundaries of a single musical style. His biggest goal is to turn music into a language of communication that spans different races in the world and shortens the distance between people. To achieve this goal, he devoted himself to the study of traditional Chinese music, traditional Chinese musical instruments, and the jungle music of the African Kalahari.
His interest in music does not end there. Yo-Yo Ma recently established the "Silk Road" project to re-introduce the culture, art, humanities, etc. of the ancient Silk Road caravans (from East Asia to Europe, including India, Tibet, Persia, Greece, etc.) to the world. In order to bring the ancient Silk Road national cultural heritage back to light and to find voices representing the traditions of this place, the task force has specially visited the countries where the Silk Road passes, and the "Silk Road Task Force" will serve as a database for future related cultural and educational projects. In addition to planning this project, Yo-Yo Ma will also perform new music specially composed for the "Silk Road" (including a concerto written for the "Silk Road Ensemble"). Sony Classical also plans to release three "Silk Road" albums, and other multimedia presentation methods such as the "Silk Road website" will also be launched. This innovative "Silk Road" project will also participate in the 2001 "Salzburg Music Festival" and the 2002 "Smithsonian Folk Music Festival" performances.
In 1997, Yo-Yo Ma spent many years completing an innovative interpretation of Bach's unaccompanied cello suites combined with various performing arts. The content not only includes his own concert performances around the world and re-recordings of Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, but more importantly, the connotation of the title "Bach's Inspiration". The performance is divided into six films (one for each of the six suites), taking Bach's music as the starting point, and then combining them with the inspiration inspired by Yo-Yo Ma, and artists from different fields (including figure skating masters Tovel and Dean, Garden designer Meservy and directors Igo Young and Girard created a new look for Baja. The film was broadcast on "Public Television" and major television networks around the world. It has won numerous awards, including two Emmy Awards, 16 Canadian Gemini Award nominations and many international film festival awards. The video was distributed by Sony Classical.
In order to develop his cello repertoire, Yo-Yo Ma often played the lesser-known cello music of the 20th century, and many modern composers have created new music tailored for him. He has premiered new works by many composers, including Stephen Albert, Richard Danielpour, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, and Peter Lieberson. ), Christopher Rouse, Sheng Zongliang, Tan Dun, John Williams, etc. Not only were these works written for him, Yo-Yo Ma also played an important role in the composer's creative process.
Yo-Yo Ma is Sony Classical’s exclusive musician. He has recorded nearly 50 albums of various styles (and has won 13 Grammy Awards), which shows the breadth of his musical interests. In addition to classical cello repertoire, he also records many new works premiered by him and pieces written especially for him.
In addition, he has made many cross-border recordings, such as "Sounds of Nature" with Bobby McFerrin, "Folk Song of Yo-Yo Ma - Appalachian Waltz" with Maier and O'Connor, and "Sounds of Nature" with Piazzolla's works. "Tango Soul" and so on, are all loved by the audience. In the spring of 2000, there are plans to release "Appalachian Journey," a sequel to "Appalachian Waltz." Its latest recording release, "Flowers of the Baroque", includes re-arranged Bach arias, Boccherini's concertos, etc., and is performed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under the command of Koopman (Yo-Yo Ma's Stella The Tivari cello is an instrument of the Baroque era), and the other "Solo" includes works by Ko Dayi, David Wilder, Zilpin, Sheng Zongliang and others, as well as a newly arranged solo version of O'Connor's "Apala" "Waltz", the entire album is performed a cappella as a prelude to another of his "Silk Road" projects. It uses different cultural perspectives to express different themes such as wandering and rootedness, innovation and tradition. Although Yo-Yo Ma spans various music fields, he still maintains his status as the best-selling musician in classical music. As soon as his new album was released, it immediately entered the "Billboard" classical music best-selling list and remained in the top 15 for a long time. There was even a record of four albums being on the charts at the same time.
In addition to constantly bringing new experiences to the audience on the music stage, Yo-Yo Ma is also committed to the promotion of music education. He not only encourages young people to get in touch with music, but also hopes that they will further participate in creation. During the tour, Yo-Yo Ma will make time to guide master class students and even participate in some informal activities for students (including non-music major students). At the same time, he also developed "family concerts", such as performing at the opening of a series of "family concerts" at Carnegie Hall; and leading small audiences in television programs such as "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street" Music world. Yo-Yo Ma does his best to create a musical space for children, making music and creativity a part of children's lives in a rich and vivid way.
In the summer of 1999, Yo-Yo Ma collaborated with the famous conductor Baran Boyne to perform and study with the "Middle East Youth Orchestra" composed of a group of outstanding young musicians from the Middle East. The event was called " 1999 City of Culture" was held in Weimar, Germany.
Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris, France in 1955. He started learning cello from his father at the age of 4 and moved to New York with his family. Later, he studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. In 1976, he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Anthropology, which opened another window for him beyond the traditional music school education. Yo-Yo Ma and his wife have a son and a daughter.
The two instruments currently used by Yo-Yo Ma are the Montagnana cello made in 1733 and the Davidoff Stradivarius cello made in 1712.
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