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The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.

Yo-Yo Ma

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Yo-Yo Ma
Age: 69
Born: 1955
Born: October 7
Actor
Cellist
Composer
Music Pedagogue
Musician
Paris
France
Yo Yo Ma
YoYo Ma
Make
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Musician
Else
Role
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Roles
Execution
Wells
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Concept
Something
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More quotes by Yo-Yo Ma

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The worst thing you can do is say to yourself, I want to be just like somebody else. You have to absorb knowledge from someone else, but ultimately you have to find your own voice.
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One of the things I love about music is live performance.
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In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something.
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I love grocery shopping when I'm home. That's what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests.
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Sharing is a much better way to communicate than proving.
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The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.
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I don't always have a five-year plan. One thing you must do in life is keep your learning curve as high as possible.
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After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is.
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Music enhances the education of our children by helping them to make connections and broadening the depth with which they think and feel. If we are to hope for a society of culturally literate people, music must be a vital part of our children's education.
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One of the marks of a great teacher lies not only in an ability to impart knowledge but also in knowing when to encourage a student to go off on his own.
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When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner.
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I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.
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I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.
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There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.
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I really would like to be involved in things and to understand things, and in some ways you've got to be careful what you wish for because I feel very, very blessed to have such an interesting life and to be able to have little snapshots of lives of people from many different parts of the world.
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People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'
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I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people.
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I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.
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When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.
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Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.
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