Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a conductor and composer. His family moved to New York when he was seven years old.
At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before taking up the cello in 1960 at age four. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for President John F. Kennedy when he was seven. At eight years old, he appeared on American television in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. By fifteen years of age, Ma had graduated from Trinity School in New York and appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations.
Ma studied at the Juilliard School of Music with Leonard Rose, and attended Columbia University, before enrolling at Harvard University, but began questioning whether he should continue his studies until, in the 1970s, Pablo Casals's performances inspired him.
However, even before that time he had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of the Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994-1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard in New York.
He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
However, this site is not run by this amazing cellist...It's run by a skinny white boy in Utah :) Enjoy!
The minute that bow of yours hits the cello, I am overwhelmed at your enormous talent and the ability to tame the wild, emotional beasts living in us all. I have listened to you for years and you only keep getting better and better if that's possible. Hope you're having a great start to the new year.
hey, thanks for adding me as a friend. i just want to let you know that you have inspired me to be more involved in music. i took up playing cello a couple of years ago, i play the guitar and also the piano
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