Quote

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.

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
Music
Role
Feel
Pieces
Feels
Roles
Something
Alive
Think
Moment
Transmission
Thinking
Comes
Advocate
Moments
Performed
Best
Piece

More quotes by Yo-Yo Ma

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As a musician I'm kind of nomadic, Waldo-like. I show up in different places, and I'm witness to unbelievable things.
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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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I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return.
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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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It's easy for me to care about Toronto, because Toronto is a community that cares about itself. It represents the world. It talks to itself, and because it does, it figures out that there must be a music garden as part of its existence.
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Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life.
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Each day I move toward that which I do not understand. The result is a continuous accidental learning which constantly shapes my life.
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This middle age thing is a little weird. Some friends and mentors are gone, and there's a very forward-looking new generation coming up behind me. So it's very much finding my own place.
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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 think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.
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When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it.
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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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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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One of the things I love about music is live performance.
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I want to investigate different cultures, to see how their identities and values affect their music. It's one way I can get to know our world, at least to a certain depth.
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I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people.
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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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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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Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also.
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The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina.
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