Yo-Yo Ma

YoYo 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 Times 100 Most Influential People of 2020 Mas primary performance instrument is the Davidov cello made in 1712 by Antonio Stradivari Mas mother Marina Lu was a singer and his father HiaoTsiun Ma was a violinist composer and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University now relocated in Taoyuan Taiwan predecessor of the presentday Nanjing University and Southeast University They both migrated from the Republic of China to France during the Chinese Civil War Mas sister YeouCheng 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 YoYo Ma from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA