Yo Yo Ma is a world renowned cellist who has played since the age of four. He has studied in the most prestigious schools, taught children and adults about music, and is even a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
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Yo Yo Ma was born in Paris, France on October 7, 1955. His parents were both musicians. In fact, his mother was a singer, and his father was a professor of music.
From the earliest possible age, Ma played the violin, piano and later viola, but settled on cello in 1960 at age four. |
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We have learned about many child prodigies in the past. A child prodigy is someone under the age of ten who is able to do, or know, something at an adult level. It is no surprise that Yo Yo Ma was a child prodigy.
Ma’s talent was so great that, by the age of four and a half, he was performing for audiences! At the age of 7, he performed for presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. |
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Yo Yo Ma studied at the Juilliard School, in New York at the age of 19. The Juilliard School is the best music school in the country, maybe even the world.
Later, Ma enrolled at Harvard University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1976. He was later given an honorary doctorate from Harvard in 1991. |
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Ma also has over 90 albums, 18 of which are Grammy Award winners. He is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.
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In 2005, Ma once again worked with John Williams on the soundtrack for the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha”.
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Yo-Yo Ma plays beautiful music, but did you know he also designed a whole garden inspired by that beautiful music? In 1999, Ma worked with landscape artists to design a Bach inspired garden. Each section of the garden fits the dance movements from Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major that we heard on Monday.
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