Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris, France on October 7, 1955. His ancestral home is Yin County, Zhejiang Province (now Yinzhou District, Ningbo City). Cellist, graduated from Harvard University and Juilliard School of Music.
In 1959, he started learning cello from his father and moved to New York with his family. In 1962, he participated in a benefit concert tour held in preparation for the establishment of the Washington Cultural Center. US President Kennedy and his wife attended the party. In 1971, 16-year-old Yo-Yo Ma held a solo concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1976, he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in anthropology. In 1985, he won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo (without Symphony Orchestra) for the first time. In 1991, Harvard University awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 1998, "Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Inspiration" came out. In 1999, he collaborated with Barenboin and performed with the "Middle East Youth Orchestra" composed of Middle Eastern musicians in Weimar, Germany. In the same year, he won the Gould Award.
In 2006, Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed Yo-Yo Ma as the United Nations Messenger of Peace and won the David Tang Award in the same year. In 2011, U.S. President Obama held a medal ceremony at the White House and awarded Yo-Yo Ma and others the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which represents the highest civilian honor in the United States. On February 13, 2017, it won the "Best World Music Album" award at the 59th Grammy Awards for the 18th time in Los Angeles, USA.
Chinese name: Yo-Yo Ma
Foreign name: Yo-YoMa
Nationality: United States
Ethnicity: Han
Birthplace: Paris, France
Date of Birth: October 7, 1955
Occupation: Cellist
Education: Harvard University, Julienne Asia Academy
Main achievements: 18 Grammy Awards
Won the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Being appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace
Representative works: "Seven Years in Tibet", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", etc.
Ancestral home: Yin County, Zhejiang (now Yinzhou District, Ningbo City)
Father: Ma Xiaojun
Mother: Lu Yawen
Blood type: Type B
Early life experience
Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris, France on October 7, 1955. He first started learning musical instruments. It was the violin and later the viola.
In 1959, he began learning piano and cello at the age of 4, and began performing in front of audiences at the age of 5.
In 1962, at the age of 7, he and his family moved to New York, USA. In the same year, he met cellist Pablo Casals, and with the help of Leonard Bernstein, he and his sister Ma Yocheng participated in a benefit tour held in preparation for the establishment of the Washington Cultural Center at Carnegie Hall in the United States. During the concert, US President Kennedy and his wife attended the party, and the Friends and Brothers were highly praised by the New York Times. The concert was conducted by Leonard Bernstein and was broadcast on American television.
In 1969, at the age of 14, he graduated from high school and, as a soloist, performed Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" with the Harvard Ratticlif Orchestra*** . Yo-Yo Ma later entered the Juilliard School and studied under cellist Leonardo Ross.
In May 1971, at a cello recital held at Carnegie Hall in New York, 16-year-old Yo-Yo Ma shocked everyone with his skills and became famous.
After studying at Juilliard School for 7 years, although he was among the top students, he dropped out before graduating and went to Harvard University. He became famous at this time, playing with many symphony orchestras. During this period, Yo-Yo Ma recorded and performed Bach's "Cello Suite". At the same time, he often collaborated with the pianist Emmanuel Ax, a good friend he made at the conservatory, to perform some chamber music. He also performed a duet with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In 1976, Yo-Yo Ma graduated from Harvard University in the United States with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. In 1991, Harvard University awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 1993, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Performing experience
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), and artists from different fields create a new style of Bach. The film was broadcast on "Public Television" and major television networks around the world. It won many awards, including two Emmy Awards, 16 Canadian Gemini Award nominations and many international film festival awards. The video was released by Sony Classical .
In 1998, Sony Classical released three "Silk Road" albums, and other multimedia presentation methods such as the "Silk Road Website" will also be launched. In the same year, his album "Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Inspiration" came out.
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 young musicians from the Middle East. The event was called "1999 Culture" City”, held in Weimar, Germany. In the same year, his album "Soul of Brazil", which he had been planning for 10 years, was finally released and won a Grammy Award.
In the spring of 2000, the sequel to "Appalachian Waltz", "Appalachian Journey", was released. 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. At the same time, he also developed "family concerts", such as performing at the opening of a series of "family concerts" at Carnegie Hall; leading small audiences in TV programs such as "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street" Enter the world of music. 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 same year, he played the theme song for the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". This neoclassical violin piece won the Academy Award for Best Music.
On the morning of the 11th, 2002, U.S. time, the first anniversary commemoration of the "September 11" terrorist attacks was held grandly at the site of the World Trade Center in New York. Yo-Yo Ma was invited to play at the commemoration event.
In the spring of 2004, Yo-Yo Ma once again won the 43rd Grammy Award. Due to strong pressure from the public and media, the Vienna National Theater once again extended an invitation to Yo-Yo Ma.
In 2005, Hollywood composer John Williams, who had scored films such as "Star Wars", announced that he would collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma to complete the soundtrack for "Memoirs of a Geisha". This means that in the 2006 Oscars, the film will not only compete with other films in terms of performance awards, but also be "one step ahead" of other films in terms of music.
In 2006, Yo-Yo Ma returned to his hometown of Ningbo to hold the "Bach Journey" cello solo concert. Although it was the first time he set foot in his hometown of Ningbo, he held flowers in his hand and kept waving to everyone. , there is no sense of strangeness in one’s hometown as a wanderer overseas.
In 2007, Yo-Yo Ma and his "Silk Road" ensemble participated in the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Games. Tan Dun composed the music for the flag entry ceremony and served as the live symphony conductor.
On January 20, 2009, Yo-Yo Ma performed at the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President Obama. He led a quartet composed of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Gabriella Monte. With Anthony McGill***. Afterwards, Obama took the oath of office by pressing the Bible that Lincoln used to take the oath of office and delivered his inaugural speech.
On February 15, 2011, U.S. President Obama awarded the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to 15 people, including Yo-Yo Ma. In the same year, Yo-Yo Ma received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Kennedy Center in the United States. His new crossover album "Sheep Circle Quartet" was also released globally. His collaboration partners were double bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolin player Chris Seale and Violinist Stuart Duncan.
In 2012, Yo-Yo Ma performed in Chongqing for the first time, and he and pianist Catherine Stott*** performed the "Yo-Yo Ma and Catherine Stott Concert". Before this Chongqing performance Yo-Yo Ma has only held concerts in five cities in mainland China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an, and Hangzhou. Chongqing is Yo-Yo Ma's first concert in the southwest region. This is the first concert, but it took four years to prepare.
On August 6, 2013, at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the United States - Lang Lang and Yo-Yo Ma made their appearances. The two musicians successively gave a "back-to-back" concert by Chinese artists. Yo-Yo Ma devoted himself to the classic Dvo?ák Cello Concerto in B minor.
In 2014, Yo-Yo Ma led the Silk Road Ensemble to appear at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall. That night, this "international band" unveiled the mystery of the performance with "Silk Road Suite". In addition, Wu Man's "Dark Night", the percussion work "Weaving", Kayhan Kalho's "Thousands of Horses Galloping", Christopher Adler's "The Music of the Palace", Sandeep Da His "Sristi" and other works with different styles.
In 2016, Yo-Yo Ma was still working on his Silk Road project. At the Hong Kong Arts Center Concert Hall, Zhao Lin's cello and sheng concerto "Du" was the opening performance of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's 2016-2017 music season. Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Tong, and Yu Long took "Du" and started from Xi'an, the starting point of the Silk Road, and successively held three western concerts in Xi'an, Lanzhou, and Urumqi with the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, Lanzhou Symphony Orchestra, and Xinjiang Philharmonic Orchestra respectively. On November 16, Yo-Yo Ma’s Beijing tour was held at the National Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. In previous Silk Road Orchestra tours, Wu Tong, a musician from China, mostly went abroad to perform around the world, but this time he returned to China.
On January 15, 2017, the Guangdong International Youth Music Week (YMCG) officially concluded. During this music week, Michael Stern and Yo-Yo Ma led the temporarily formed 9-day Guangzhou Youth Symphony Orchestra. Artists performed a concert at Xinghai Concert Hall.
Personal life
Yo-Yo Ma’s father, Ma Xiaojun, is a doctor of music education, a composer and conductor, and a former professor at the National Central University; his mother, Lu Yawen, is an art professor at the National Central University. A female vocal singer who graduated from the Department of Music.
In 1977, Yo-Yo Ma married his long-term girlfriend Jill Hanauer, and they had two children named Nicholas and Emily. Yo-Yo Ma's sister, Yo-Yo Ma, is also a violinist and is married to guitarist Michael Dadep. Two families run the Children's Orchestra Society in Long Island, New York.
One of the two cellos used by Yo-Yo Ma is called the "Montagnana Cello" and is nicknamed "Petunia". This cello was made in 1733 and is worth about $30 million. In 1999, Yo-Yo Ma left the cello in a taxi while performing in New York, and the taxi driver later brought it back. To this end, Yo-Yo Ma specially recorded a public service announcement for New York taxis. The slogan is "Hello passengers, I am Yo-Yo Ma. Please take your belongings with you and don't leave them in the car like me."
His other cello is named "Davydov Stradivarius Cello", named after cellist and composer Karl Yulievich Davidov. This piano was made in 1712 and is worth hundreds of millions of yuan. It originally belonged to Jacqueline Dupree. After her death, the piano was auctioned. Although the new buyer was unknown, the collector still decided to buy the piano. Continue to lend it to Yo-Yo Ma.
Music Works
Source of Musical Works
Social Activities
In 1998, Yo-Yo Ma registered a non-profit arts, culture and The educational organization project "Silk Road Project" is dedicated to art, culture and educational activities, hoping to break down geographical barriers by bringing together artists and audiences from all over the world.
Award record
Source of award record
Character evaluation
His performance was like God coming, because Jobs did not believe that a mortal could do it So far. He is one of the world's greatest classical music performers and one of the world's most creative and diverse musicians. His music always makes people cry, make their eyes moist, and fill their hearts with love and boundless thoughts. Youyou’s music connects the world together. (Comments by Jobs, Obama, and Tan Dun)
He is the Chinese musician who has been associated with the Grammys the most times. He has won various Grammy awards 17 times. What is particularly rare is that he is good at classical performance and is more "compatible" than other classical musicians. For example, the record "Yo-Yo Ma and Friends: Singing for Happiness and Peace", which he collaborated with friends on a whim, also It can easily win the Grammy Award for "Best Folk Album".
(Nanjing Daily Review)
Through interactions with musicians, he transcends the boundaries of a single musical style. His biggest goal is to turn music into a language of communication, across different races in the world, and to shorten 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. From his extensive and diverse music career, it is not difficult to understand his constant seeking and listening to different dialogue methods and his attitude towards personal artistic growth and innovation. Whether playing new music or familiar pieces, Yo-Yo Ma strives to find elements that stimulate imagination. 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 created new music tailored for him. He has premiered new works by many composers. These were not only works written for him, but he also played an important role in the composer's creative process. (Sina Entertainment Review)