Yo-Yo Ma: celebrating 70 years of the eminent cellist

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Has there been a cellist who has crossed from the classical realm over to public consciousness as much as Yo-Yo Ma? You’d be hard-pressed to find a classical musician who, in addition to enjoying an international performing and recording career since an early age, has been namedropped on 90s sitcom Seinfeld (twice), appeared on Sesame Street, as well as received numerous prizes and accolades, such as the Avery Fisher Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Also, who else could fall off their chair in the middle of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and not miss a beat?!

Ma was born in Paris on 7 October 1955. Regarded as a child prodigy, he took up the cello aged four, before moving with his family to the US aged seven. There, he studied at the Juilliard School and Harvard University, and embarked on an unparalleled career that propelled him as an ambassador not only for music, but peace, collaboration and humanity. 

Perhaps this is summed up in a quote from Pablo Casals, recalled by Ma from when he met the maestro aged seven: ’I think of myself as a human being first, a musician second and a cellist third.’

We take a look at some of the notable moments of Ma’s vast career over the decades:

Presidential performances

Yo-Yo Ma has performed for many US presidents throughout his career, starting with an appearance at the Kennedy Center for presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower at ‘An American Pageant of the Arts’ in 1962.

At the tender age of only seven, Ma took to the stage with his eleven-year-old sister, Yeou-Cheng, to perform Jean-Baptiste Breval’s Concertino no.3 in A major, following an introduction by the one-and-only Leonard Bernstein.

In a 2017 interview, Ma shared what it was like to perform for the president at such a young age: ’Did I know who president Kennedy was? Probably not. Did I know he was an incredibly important person? Yes. Did I think about this for the rest of my life, about who this person was? Absolutely.’

Check out the performance here:

Presidential performances didn’t stop at aged seven of course - notably, Ma performed at the presidential inaugurations of Barack Obama in 2009 and Joe Biden in 2021.

At Obama’s first inauguration, which took place on 20 January 2009, Ma performed John Williams’s Air and Simple Gifts along with violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill.

His performance for the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden was pre-recorded due to the Covid-19 pandemic, where he played Amazing Grace.

Appearances on Sesame Street

Always one to advocate bringing music to new audiences, Ma has appeared on the legendary children’s educational series performing ‘Murray’ Beethoven’s Quartet for two honkers, dinger and cello…

As well as taking part in a bluesy jam session with Hoots, Sesame Street’s resident saxophone-playing owl:

Paying tribute through the power of music 

A year after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Ma appeared as the first performer at the site of the World Trade Center. In a moving performance, he performed the Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite no.5 in C minor, while the names of the victims of the attack were read.

Ma also performed the Sarabande at an interfaith service in April 2013 to honour the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. In March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, footage of Ma performing the very same movement emerged, with Ma performing standing up outside the Russian embassy in Washington D.C. on ‘Zelensky Way’.

A vast recording legacy

Alongside his global profile, Ma has sustained one of the most prolific recording careers of any artist. His official site lists no fewer than 139 albums spanning core cello repertoire, new commissions, chamber works, film soundtracks and cross-genre collaborations – from a chamber album of Saint-Saëns in 1978 to his most recent release, Beethoven for Three, with Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax.

The breadth of Ma’s artistry is evident from this sampling: multiple interpretations of Bach’s solo suites, acclaimed recordings of Beethoven and Dvořák concertos, the genre-bridging Hush with Bobby McFerrin, the bluegrass-inflected Appalachia Waltz and Appalachia Journey and Silkroad’s Sing Me Home, which earned the 2017 Grammy for Best World Music Album. In all, Ma’s discography has garnered 19 Grammy Awards – recognition of a musician whose technical mastery is matched by an ever-expanding vision of how the cello can speak to the world. In addition to his Grammys, Ma has received some of the USA’s highest honours, including the National Medal of Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honours.

Bach as lifelong companion

That vision finds its deepest expression in Ma’s relationship with Johann Sebastian Bach. No other composer has accompanied him so consistently across the decades. He has recorded the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello three times: first in 1983 (also his first Grammy), again in 1998 in the multimedia Inspired by Bach project and most recently in 2018 with Six Evolutions. Each traversal captures a different stage of Ma’s artistic and personal journey, from youthful brilliance to mature reflection.

Silkroad and the art of collaboration

If Bach represents Ma’s inward journey, Silkroad might be said to embody his outward gaze. Founded by Ma in 1998, the Silkroad Project (now the Silkroad Ensemble, directed by his successor Rhiannon Giddens) brings together musicians from across the world’s traditions to create new forms of collaboration. The ensemble has toured internationally, commissioned scores of new works, and released recordings that weave together Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and American influences.

Their 2017 album Sing Me Home won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album. But more than prizes, Silkroad stands as a living testament to Ma’s belief that music can be a meeting place – dissolving boundaries and building community.