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

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
Obviously
Jazz
Musician
Including
Composers
Force
Classical
Also
Influenced
Music
Performers
Composer

More quotes by Yo-Yo Ma

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But an innovation, to grow organically from within, has to be based on an intact tradition, so our idea is to bring together musicians who represent all these traditions, in workshops, festivals, and concerts, to see how we can connect with each other in music.
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As you begin to realize that every different type of music, everybody's individual music, has its own rhythm, life, language and heritage, you realize how life changes, and you learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.
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You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another.
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I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.
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The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing.
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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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Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience.
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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 du Pre, and many others, including many of my peers and contemporaries.
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You must have a reason to be in the places to which you go, and you must do only things that you really care about.
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Good things happen when you meet strangers.
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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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With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.
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I have yet to find something that beats the power of being in love, or the power of music at its most magical.
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Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there's got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you're at the edge, you have to go forward or backward if you go forward, you have to jump together.
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Sound is ephemeral, fleeting, but some sort of a physical manifestation can help you hold on to it longer in time. I'm sure of this I've always thought the sound that you make is just the tip of the iceberg, like the person that you see physically is just the tip of the iceberg as well.
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People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'
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I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered.
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When your heart and your mind are engaged, you cannot go wrong.
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My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture.
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After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is.
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