Yo-Yo Ma
Biography
Born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris, Yo-Yo had a very musical upbringing. His mother was a singer, while his father was a conductor and composer.
He began to study the violin, then the viola, before taking up the cello. When he was seven years old he and his family moved to New York and soon afterwards he appeared on American television in a concert conducted by Leonard Berstein.
He studied cello at the Juilliard School of Music in New York before following a postgraduate arts education at Harvard University.
Founder of the Silk Road Project, a musical and educational initiative promoting the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road route, Yo-Yo Ma is a non-stop touring artist who claims to have been away from home for 20 out of the past 30 years and has released almost 60 CDs.
Music
He has performed with most of the world's major orchestras and won numerous awards including a mantelpiece-full of Grammys. 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.
Yo-Yo Ma has a reputation for having one of the most eclectic repertoires in classical music. He has performed and recorded Baroque pieces on period instruments, American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, Argentinian tangos, Brazilian music as well as soundtrack to the films 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' and 'Memoirs of a Geisha'.
In 2006 he took on a new role as a UN Peace Ambassador.
Discography
2007 - Yo-Yo Ma: Appassionato
Yo-Yo Ma has an extensive number of recordings. View his full discography here
