Cellist Yo Yo Ma: His career and music

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma

CNN Moderator: Greetings and welcome to CNN.com, Yo-Yo Ma. We are very pleased to have you join us today.

Yo-Yo Ma: Hello to everybody! It's a treat to be online, and I'm looking forward to your questions.

CNN Moderator: This week you are performing Richard Danielpour's 'Through the Ancient Valley' (Cello Concerto No. 2) with the New York Philharmonic. Tell us about this music and what is special about it.

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Yo-Yo Ma: I think Richard is a wonderful composer, born in America, but he happens to have parents from Iran. I thought I would ask him to write a piece. He used to tell me about his grandmother singing to him, and I asked him to write a song connected to his sense of what ancient Persia or modern Iran's music might be like.

Question from chat room: Do you ever get tired of playing the classics? Is that why you're going into new areas of music?

Yo-Yo Ma: I think part of constantly rediscovering the classics involves going into what is a contemporary renewal of older traditions. I always feel that the classics sound fresh after a musical adventure.

Question from chat room: Mr. Ma, you recently stated in an interview on CNN that sometimes the effort of performance is communicated even though it might not be "successful." Could you explain this further?

Yo-Yo Ma: There are limits to how much sound a cello can make. That's part of the framing of acoustical instruments. Finding what those limits might be, and then trying to suggest perhaps even the illusion of going beyond is part of that kind of effort.

Question from chat room: Mr. Ma: When you perform, is it a conscious decision on your part to use all the aspects of performance available to you: gesture, facial expression as well as the music itself?

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. So, anything that is involved in helping that transmission, I would do, in the same way a parent might advocate for a child.

Question from chat room: If you had to name your favorite art piece of music, what would it be? Non-art music?

Yo-Yo Ma: I think, just talking about art music and non-art music, puts in certain categories that I'm not necessarily comfortable describing. What I can say is that I have fallen in love with so many pieces of music in my lifetime. I remember spending a year when I was 12 years old listening to a Schubert trio. I wore out the recording, because I loved it so much. In terms of other forms of music, there are so many pieces in other kinds of literature that I love, that I don't know well. Maqam music, jazz, many folk traditions... I'm kind of old, so I've fallen in love with a lot of music. :-)

Question from chat room: Did jazz have any influence on your music career?

Yo-Yo Ma: Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.

Question from chat room: Who was the cellist that influenced you mostly?

Yo-Yo Ma: I don't think I can point to one single influence. 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 duPre, and many others, including many of my peers and contemporaries.

Question from chat room: Yo-Yo: Are you going to tour in Asia anytime soon? You have a lot of fans waiting for you.

Yo-Yo Ma: I just came back from Asia last Friday. I was in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. I will be going to central Asia in October, and Japan in December.

Question from chat room: Tell us about the Silk Road project please.

Yo-Yo Ma: Okay... I think of the ancient Silk Road, the trade routes that join so many people together between the Mediterranean all the way to south and east Asia as the "Internet of antiquity." What the Silk Road Project tries to do is to be a cultural initiative that tries to look at the convergence of cultural creativity and education leading towards better understanding between people.

Question from chat room: Yo-Yo Ma - Tell us about your experience doing the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. What did you think of the movie?

Yo-Yo Ma: My son saw it three times! He likes it! It is a project that involves a much bigger team than what I usually work with. In playing that score, I felt that I was serving two masters, a director--Ang Lee, and the composer--Tan Dun. It was fascinating to find the middle ground where both people were esthetically satisfied.

Question from chat room: Dear Mr. Ma: What age do you think is good to start study music instrument?

Yo-Yo Ma: I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music, if thought of as a language, would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.

CNN Moderator: You once admitted that as a young student, you disliked practicing. How did you motivate yourself to continue?

Yo-Yo Ma: I still have to find motivation to practice sometimes. There are a couple of answers. One general thing I say to myself is: "Don't ever play a note on an instrument until you want to hear something." You may have just heard a tune, and you want to play it on your instrument or sing it. I think setting small goals are extremely important, goals that can actually be accomplished. Reducing frustration is good, while trying to also acknowledge that there are long-term goals. Playing for and with friends is, I think, a very important motivator, after a certain age.

Question from chat room: You've worked with several conductors and musicians (Christopher Rouse, Edgar Meyer, and others) who also are talented composers. Have you ever tried your hand at composing?

Yo-Yo Ma: Yes, I believe in putting pencil to paper, almost as a way to better understand what others are trying to communicate. However, I think few people would flock to hear what I've written.

Question from chat room: When is your next album due out?

Yo-Yo Ma: I don't know! I never know... I'm the last to know.

Question from chat room: I met you at a master class at Curtis Institute of Music and was very touched at what you told the students that day. Do you enjoy working with young musicians?

Yo-Yo Ma: Absolutely. It's one of my favorite things to do. I'm about to do that again in about 10 minutes. :-)

Question from chat room: Mr. Ma, what activities do you enjoy outside of music?

Yo-Yo Ma: I love my family very much, and I don't get to spend that much time with them, since I'm on the road more than half the time for my work. So, I like to do thing with my family when their schedule permits, and obviously, I love to see friends, and go to the theatre, and just ground myself being at home.

CNN Moderator: Have there been any particular performances that have been especially meaningful to you in some way?

Yo-Yo Ma: I'm not trying to duck the question, but I do think of making sure that I'm absolutely there at every performance in my mind, in my physical self and in my heart. I think it's the convergence of the three that allows for a special occasion to happen. I'd like to think that at every performance, something remains as a stickiness factor in people who have participated in performing or attending the concert.

Question from chat room: Has your success altered your approach to music from before you were famous?

Yo-Yo Ma: I think getting older, more than anything else--having had a family, as in wife and children, has affected my music the most. Learning about being less selfish, less self-centered, to share, to think about what's important, that has probably focused my approach to making music most. The fame aspect sometimes allows for some greater possibilities of trying things. In that sense, I feel very lucky.

Question from chat room: What aspect of playing cello was or is the most difficult for you?

Yo-Yo Ma: I believe that every different style, or different composer's voice, almost requires a slightly different physical and mental approach. So, the greatest difficulty could be in understanding that voice and matching it with the physical engineering to making that concept work in a physical space. So, it could be sometimes a physical difficulty, sometimes it might be a mental or psychological difficulty or barrier.

Question from chat room: Where does your passion come from--has it always been in you?

Yo-Yo Ma: I've been very lucky, through living and traveling. I feel extraordinarily privileged to have seen many things in life, both high and low. There is a big world out there, and when I find out people's histories, personal stories, both in the present and the past, I feel the need to be able to put that in a sound world, in musical form, and to advocate for those voices. That, and what my family has taught me, are the two things that fuel this passion.

CNN Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts to share with us today?

Yo-Yo Ma: I just wanted to say that I'm really impressed by the questions that you asked, and thank you to everybody for being online today. I hope we can do it again! Thank you also to the New York Philharmonic for this wonderful week. The musicians are extraordinary, and Mr. Massur has a wonderful vision, putting music looking at one region from three different perspectives. So, I'm really, really happy to be part of the discussion, and part in real time in these performances.

CNN Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Yo-Yo Ma.

Yo-Yo Ma: Thank you!

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