Quote

Many of the Central Asians know Russian, and Ted Levin speaks it fluently. I speak Chinese, but Mongolian is completely different, so we had to have translators.

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
Different
Translators
Russian
Speaks
Central
Chinese
Levin
Completely
Mongolian
Speak
Fluently
Many
Asians

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Once something is memorable, it's living and you're using it. That to me is the foundation of a creative society.
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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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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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When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.
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There are limits to how much sound a cello can make. That's part of the framing of acoustical instruments. Finding what those limits might be, and then trying to suggest perhaps even the illusion of going beyond is part of that kind of effort.
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I play an instrument that has four strings, and I'm still trying to get it right. What I've tried to do in the process of playing these four strings is to try and understand the people I meet, the stories they have to tell. And then become an advocate for them and their stories through music.
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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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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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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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I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.
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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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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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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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I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning.
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After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is.
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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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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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