Quotes by Yo-Yo Ma

About Yo-Yo Ma:

Yo-Yo Ma is a French-born Chinese American cellist. Born in Paris, he spent his schooling years in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of five. He graduated from Juilliard School and Harvard University and has enjoyed a prolific career as both a soloist performing with orchestras around the world and a recording artist. His 90+ albums have received 18 Grammy Awards.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We may be coming to a new golden age of instrument making.

Yo-Yo Ma

What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such ...

Yo-Yo Ma

I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.

Yo-Yo Ma

You know, you can have someone who's the very best at something, but if there's not that kind of chemistry, collaborating is not going to amount to anything.

Yo-Yo Ma

The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of con...

Yo-Yo Ma

I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.

Yo-Yo Ma

I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.

Yo-Yo Ma

I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

Yo-Yo Ma

I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.

Yo-Yo Ma

My teacher, my great cello teacher Leonard Rose, was such a great cellist, and nurturing man, very patient. But I grew up not only admiring him, but obviously Casals, Rostrotovich, Jacqueline du Pre, and many others, including many of my peers and co...

Yo-Yo Ma

Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.

Yo-Yo Ma

Good things happen when you meet strangers.

Yo-Yo Ma

When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.

Yo-Yo Ma

A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself. It's sort of like a prism, which you can see from each facet a single totality.

Yo-Yo Ma

I love grocery shopping when I'm home. That's what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests.

Yo-Yo Ma

People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'

Yo-Yo Ma

Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there's got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you're at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together.

Yo-Yo Ma

As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.

Yo-Yo Ma

I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people.

Yo-Yo Ma

I really would like to be involved in things and to understand things, and in some ways you've got to be careful what you wish for because I feel very, very blessed to have such an interesting life and to be able to have little snapshots of lives of ...

Yo-Yo Ma

Author Bio

  • NameYo-Yo Ma
  • DescriptionAmerican cellist
  • AliasesYo Yo Ma; YoYo Ma
  • BornOctober 7, 1955
  • CountryFrance; United States Of America
  • ProfessionViolinist; Cellist; Musician; Composer
  • AwardsNational Medal Of Arts; Presidential Medal Of Freedom; Emmy Award; Léonie Sonning Music Prize; Glenn Gould Prize