Yo-Yo Ma
Known For
Sound
Born
1955-10-07 in Paris, France
Biography
Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born to Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy, and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, Ma moved with his family to Boston and later to New York City, where he continued his cello studies at the Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard University. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world, recorded more than 92 albums, and received 19 Grammy Awards. In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, Ma has recorded a wide variety of folk music, such as American bluegrass music, traditional Chinese melodies, the tangos of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, and Brazilian music. He has also collaborated with artists from a diverse range of genres, including Bobby McFerrin, Carlos Santana, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, James Taylor, Miley Cyrus, Zakir Hussain, and Sting. Ma has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace since 2006. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize in 1978, The Glenn Gould Prize in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, Kennedy Center Honors in 2011, the Polar Music Prize in 2012, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize in 2022. He was named as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Ma's primary performance instrument is the Davidov cello, made in 1712 by Antonio Stradivari. Ma's mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist, composer and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University (now relocated in Taoyuan, Taiwan; predecessor of the present-day Nanjing University and Southeast University). They both migrated from the Republic of China to France during the Chinese Civil War. Ma's sister, Yeou-Cheng, played the violin and piano professionally before obtaining a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and becoming a pediatrician. The family moved to Boston when Ma was seven. ... Source: Article "Yo-Yo Ma" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Most Known For
The Simpsons
as Yo-Yo Ma (voice)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
as Self - Musical Guest
The West Wing
as Yo-Yo Ma
Frasier
as Tom (voice)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
as Self (voice)
The Colbert Report
as Self - Guest
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
as Self
Arthur
as Yo-Yo Ma (voice)
Desus & Mero
as Self
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
as Yo-Yo Ma
Le Grand Échiquier
as Self - Main Guest
Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
as Self - Guest
Won't You Be My Neighbor?
as Self - Musician and Fred's Friend
Ozawa
as Self
Deeper Look from New York
as Self
Music by John Williams
as Self - Cellist
Half Moon
as Self
The Words That Built America
as Self - Reader: Declaration of Independence
Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach
as Self