Yo Yo Ma Tickets

About Yo Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a world-famous French-Chinese-American cellist. He is considered one of the best cellists in the world. He was born in Paris to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina, was a singer, while his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a conductor and composer. Ma began to study the violin, then the viola, before taking up the cello. His family moved to New York when he was seven years old.

Ma was a child prodigy, appearing on American television at the age of eight in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. He entered the Juilliard School, and then went to Harvard University (where he was in the Currier House dormitory), but was questioning whether he should continue his studies until, in the 1970s, Pablo Casals's performing inspired him.

Since that time, he has steadily gained in fame, and has performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello are particularly acclaimed, and he has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax.

His main performance instrument is a very fine Montagnana cello from Venice, made in 1733. One of his other cellos, the "Davidov Stradivarius", was previously played regularly by Jacqueline du Pré and left to him upon her death. It is currently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively plays Baroque music on it. He also owns a cello made by the American luthier firm Moes & Moes, as well as a carbon-fiber cello made by Boston company Luis & Clark.

Yo-Yo Ma has been called "the most omnivorous of all cellists" by critics and indeed possesses a far more eclectic repertoire than typical for a classical player. He has performed and recorded Baroque pieces on period instruments, American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, the Argentinean tangos of Astor Piazzolla, Brazilian music, the soundtrack to the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Philip Glass's minimalist score of Naqoyqatsi in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire.

He currently plays in his own project, The Silk Road Ensemble, and records on the Sony Classical label. Ma married his long-time girlfriend, Jill Hornor, a violinist, in 1978. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily. Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, also born in Paris, is a violinist, married to Michael Dadap, a New York guitarist.

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, Arthur, as well as on The West Wing and Sesame Street.