Word: cellist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...musician in the age of Clinton? One has a hard time picturing Mstislav Rostropovich pulling off his pants in front of reporters. Nor, for that matter, can one picture Pablo Casals recording albums with jazz singers or Texas fiddlers or Argentine tango musicians as Ma has done. Or either cellist initiating, as Ma has, an ambitious series of six hour-long films inspired by Bach's six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, involving collaborators as diverse as movie director Atom Egoyan, modern-dance choreographer Mark Morris, ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy. The films...
...cellist, Ma is renowned for effortless technique, a rich tone and a masterly feel for interpretation that allows his performances to breathe with an almost jazzlike spontaneity. "Yo-Yo has an ease of playing that is given to very few. It is a kind of mastery that gives one the greatest possible freedom," says violinist Isaac Stern, a onetime mentor of Ma's. "He is probably the most perfect instrumentalist I have ever seen," says Ax. "I spend hours and hours practicing every day. Yo-Yo can afford to sleep late and have lunch, and he still plays much more...
Aside from sheer intellectual curiosity there is a practical reason for Ma's restlessness. "A pianist," says Ax, "could go on playing for 100 years and not begin to play the complete standard repertoire. For a cellist, if you are a talent like Yo-Yo, by the time you are 25 you have mastered all the cello concertos that are known." Through numerous commissions, Ma has done his best to expand the repertoire. Still, he's swimming his laps in a comparatively small pool...
Just what effect, if any, did the filming of Inspired by Bach have on Ma's interpretations? You'd have to ask him. But anyone who watches Falling Down Stairs, the film on the C-major suite, can see how enthusiastically the cellist responds to Morris' fanciful choreography and hear how some of that unfeigned delight has made its way into Ma's rhythmically light-footed performance. Whether on CD or videocassette, it is the best of all possible introductions to Yo-Yo Ma's newly revised version of the Gospel According to Johann Sebastian Bach...
...Mind." His son, Jakob, was honored as a composer of the best rock song, "One Headlight," performed by his band, the Wallflowers. Father and son took home a total of five Grammys, three and two respectively. Rapper Puff Daddy, Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan, country-bluegrass performer Alison Krauss, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soul newcomer Erykah Badu and the late newsman Charles Kuralt were also multiple winners in the 40th annual awards show, held in Radio City Music Hall. Besides Barbra Streisand, two other planned performances were canceled due to illness -- George Strait was replaced by Vince Gill and Luciano...