Word: ma
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...classical music dead?" is the standard rubric for critics' thumb suckers on the subject. Yo-Yo Ma, for his part, is trying to liven things up. Besides his numerous collaborations, he has been commissioning new works, experimenting with electronic instruments, exploring the links between the European tradition and other world music, and involving himself in music education on every level from Sesame Street to Tanglewood. "The whole idea of what music is and what culture and education are has changed so much," says Emanuel Ax, the pianist who is a longtime friend and performance partner of Ma...
...child prodigy, Ma never toed the expected line, cutting class regularly, pounding brews at music camp and leaving his cello in the rain, passing up the conservatory for a liberal-arts education at Columbia and then dropping out without telling his parents (he later graduated from Harvard). Now 42, Ma has long been possessed of an easygoing, boyish--at times even goofy--charm. "He's a doll," says Morris. "Everybody knows it, and it's a cliche, but it's true. I'd like to think there's something vicious about him, but I've never seen...
...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...
Since making his first recording at the age of 22, Ma has released more than 50 albums, winning 12 Grammys in the process and enjoying a number of crossover hits, including Hush with vocalist Bobby McFerrin and Appalachia Waltz with bassist Edgar Meyer and violinist-fiddler Mark O'Connor (the latter CD has been a fixture on the classical charts for 76 weeks). But life as an elite musician has its dreary side. Ma has a grueling concert schedule that keeps him on the road roughly half the year. Ax's comments notwithstanding, Ma practices where he can--in hotels...
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...