Yo-Yo Ma

Known for SoundBorn 1955-10-07 (age 70)Paris, France

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born to Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy, and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, Ma moved with his family to Boston and later to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard University. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, recorded more than 92 albums, and received 19 Grammy Awards. In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, Ma has recorded a wide variety of folk music, such as American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, the tangos of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, and Brazilian music. He has also collaborated with artists from a diverse range of genres, including Bobby McFerrin, Carlos Santana, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Miley Cyrus, Zakir Hussain, and Sting. Ma has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace since 2006. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize in 1978, The Glenn Gould Prize in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, Kennedy Center Honors in 2011, the Polar Music Prize in 2012, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize in 2022. He was named as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Ma's primary performance instrument is the Davidov cello, made in 1712 by Antonio Stradivari. Ma's mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist, composer and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University (now relocated in Taoyuan, Taiwan; predecessor of the present-day Nanjing University and Southeast University). They both migrated from the Republic of China to France during the Chinese Civil War. Ma's sister, Yeou-Cheng, played the violin and piano professionally before obtaining a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and becoming a pediatrician. The family moved to Boston when Ma was seven. ... Source: Article "Yo-Yo Ma" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.Read more

Movies & web series

Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood

Falling Down Stairs

Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach

Bach Cello Suite #1: The Music Garden

The Vietnam War

Ozawa

Music by John Williams

The West Wing

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Mister Rogers: It's You I Like

Children of the Night

Bach Cello Suite #2: The Sound of the Carceri

Struggle for Hope

The Best of Sessions at West 54th: Vol. 1

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Simpsons

Le Grand Échiquier

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Memoirs of a Geisha

Frasier

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Taipei Story

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Seven Years in Tibet

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

Arthur

The Colbert Report

How to Grow a Band

Sarabande

Blue Gold: American Jeans

Half Moon

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

The Words That Built America

Naqoyqatsi

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Desus & Mero

Chris Botti in Boston

The Goat Rodeo Sessions Live

Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy

Notre-Dame de Paris : La Réouverture - La Grande Soirée

Facing the Wind

Dancing Nation

Beethoven: Triple Concerto & Symphony No. 7

Deeper Look from New York

Yo Yo Ma: The Bach Project– Six Cello Suites

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone

Beethoven - Choral Fantasy and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello & Piano