The cellist is the first core classical artist to reach this number of streams on Spotify with one track

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma’s first recording of the Bach: Prelude from Cello Suite No. 1 has hit 100M worldwide streams on Spotify, making him the first core classical artist to reach this number of streams on Spotify with one track.

Ma started playing the Bach Cello Suites at the age of 4 and first recorded them 1983, at age 27. He recorded them again in 1998. Last year, at age 62, he recorded them for what he says may be the last time. 

These pieces are the inspiration behind his most recent outreach effort, The Bach Project, in which he takes the six Suites to 36 different locales. In these performances, Ma plays them in numerical order without intermission, making for over two straight hours of non-stop music making.