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SPECIAL FEATURES
SECTIONS
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A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF ASIAN AMERICAN ARTISTRY!
YOYO
MA SYMBOLIZES the
fast-growing influence of Asian/Asian Pacific American artists within
the American scene while incorporating various eclectic musical genres.
His
long established artistry and respect have provided various opportunities
to play with many renowned artists. These artists include renowned baroque
conductor/composer Ton Koopman, Itzhak Perlman (at the 2001 Academy Awards
broadcast), Tan Dun, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor, James Taylor, Alison
Krauss, Joshua Bell, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Mike Marshall, Emanuel Ax,
Isaac Stem, Jaime Laredo and Bobby McFerrin
THE
MANY-FACTED CAREER of cellist YoYo
Ma is a testament to his
search for new ways to communicate with audiences and to his own desire
for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing a new concerto, revisiting
a familiar work from the cello repertoire, reaching out to young audiences
and student musicians, or exploring cultures and musical forms outside
the Western classical tradition, Ma strives to find
connections that stimulate the imagination. Sony Classical has been
his partner throughout his career, documenting his interpretations of
the mainstream repertoire and collaborating in his search for new ways
of making music. IN NOVEMBER 1997, Ma was named Artist of the Year in the Gramophone Awards. The magazine noted, "In a year of quite extraordinary diversity, the cellist YoYo Ma has shown that the boundaries of 'classical' music need not be restraining as he has vaulted spectacularly from classical cello concertos, to blue-grass music via a disc of tangos to a host of specially composed works featuring his remarkable talent. With Ma, there is only one category of music - the kind he wants to make." IN
HIS PASSION to
incorporate different artistic mediums to explore other means of communication,
he has developed works from people in other disciplines. This was seen
in six multimedia films of
Bach's Six Cello Suites that explored the relationship between Bach's
music and other artistic disciplines. These films featured Mark Morris'
choreography, the work of the renowned Kabuki artist Tamasaburo Bando,
the Italian architect Piranesi's designs, Boston-based garden designer
Julie Moir Messervy, the Olympic ice-dancing champions Jane Torvill and
Christopher Dean, and Canadian film director Atom Egoyan. The films have
been released on home video by Sony Classical and have won numerous honors
- including two 1998 Emmy Awards and 16 Canadian Gemini nominations. YOYO MA DRAWS INSPIRATION from a wide circle of collaborators, having created programs with such artists as Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Pamela Frank, Jeffrey Kahane, Young Uck Kim, Jaime Laredo, Bobby McFerrin, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor, Peter Serkin, Isaac Stern, Richard Stoltzman and Kathryn Stott. Each of these collaborations is fueled by the interaction between or among the artists, and often that process produces music that extends beyond the boundaries of a particular genre, classical or otherwise. To that end, he has taken time to immerse himself in projects as diverse as native Chinese music (and distinctive instruments) and the music of the Kalahari bush people in Africa. AS A RESULT, YoYo Ma has created "The Silk Road Project," a new initiative aimed at exploring the cross-cultural influences among and between the lands comprising the legendary Silk Road and the West. Beginning in 2001, an ambitious program of concerts, festivals and educational outreach activities in North America, Europe and Asia was initiated with a distinguished team of scholars, musicians and artists from around the world. The Silk Road Project is designed to illuminate the historical contributions of the Silk Road; support innovative collaborations among artists from the East and West; and resituate classical music within a broader global context. AN EXCLUSIVE Sony Classical recording artist, YoYo Ma is a ten-time Grammy award winner. Within his fifty (c.d.), his recent releases include the following:
OTHER RENOWN RECORDED WORK includes the following
HIS SUPPORT of contemporary music is evident when he has premiered works by a diverse group of composers, including Stephen Albert, Chen Qigang, John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Christopher Rouse, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun and John Williams. Highly acclaimed for his ensemble playing, Mr. Ma regularly performs chamber music with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stem and Jaime Laredo of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Fauré, Mozart and Schumann.
YOYO MA HAS PERFORMED to complete capacity at many venues throughout the world. They include a sold out the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the premiere of contemporary music entitled "Heaven, Earth, Mankind: Symphony 1997" celebrating the return of Hong Kong to Chinese Rule. ALONGSIDE his extensive performing and recording, YoYo Ma devotes time to work with young musicians in programs such as those at Interlochen and Tanglewood. He seeks to include educational outreach activities in his regular touring schedule as well, through master classes and more informal interaction with student audiences. He is also working to develop concerts for family audiences and appeared with Emanuel Ax on Canegie Hall's family series. He seeks to include educational outreach activities in his regular touring schedule through master classes and more informal interaction with students. He is also working to develop concerts for family audiences, and he appears with Emanuel Ax in Carnegie Hall's family series. OTHER
WORKS designed
for children include the following: Ma's performance on the recent release
Lulie
the Iceberg (SK 61665), a one-time performance, recorded live at Carnegie
Hall, of a musical tale for children about the environment. Based on a
children's
book by Princess Hisako of Takamodo, Lulie the Iceberg features an
exciting original musical score by American composer Jeffrey Stock performed
by Ma, violinist Pamela Frank and Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Paul
Winter, accompanied by chorus and orchestra.
HIS
VISION OF INCORPORATING MUSIC & TECHNOLOGY into
a "true musical experiences" started in
1964 when his father (Hiao-Tsiun Ma) came home to his family's Manhattan
apartment with a Norelco tape recorder that could tape music onto a cassette.
This allowed hm to listen to himself after practicing. He has embraced
technology innovations to forge bridges across barriers of time, geography
and culture. His embracement and vision of technology has led him to participate
in futuristic performance applications such as Tan Dun's 2003 "The
Map." This
piece (described as a concerto for cello, video and orchestra), incorporated
digital images of the performances of traditional musicnas from China's
Hunan that "played'' at Tanglewood along with a live orchestra. This is
Mr. Ma's attempt to use such a video or audio recording as a window into
the soul of the person on the other side of the 1's and 0's. Their fantasy
is that "500 years from now a symphony orchestra and cellist will
play with this girl and they will have exactly the same feeling as we
do today, across language, time, culture, place. The technology makes
that possible.''
His efforts clearly defines one of the few things that distinguishes him from other performers - his constant search to have a direction connection with his audiences because of their great importantance to him. His hope is about one message: "We've got to emotionally feel interdependent. Not co-dependent in the negative sense, but interdependent in the sense that everybody has strengths.'' "We actually do have to live in one world,'' he added, "and all of this technology is making it more essential that we have a way of thinking about a whole because we know that the alternative is disaster, is total, utter disaster.'
YOYO MA gave his first public recital at age 5 and by the time he was 19 was being compared with such masters as Rostropovich and Casals. ONE of the most sought-after cellists of our time, Mr. Ma has appeared with eminent conductors and orchestras in all the music capitals of the world. He has also earned a distinguished international reputation as an ambassador for classical music and its vital role in society. He currently plays a Montagnana cello from Venice made in 1733 and a Davidoff Stradivarius made in 1712.
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