Music, like all of culture, helps us to understand our environment, each other, and ourselves.
Yo-Yo Ma
Music Helps Us to Understand
Topic: Creativity, Culture, & the Arts
Music, like all of culture, helps us to understand our environment, each other, and ourselves. Culture helps us to imagine a better future. Culture helps turn “them” into “us.” And these things have never been more important.
Yo-Yo Ma was born on October 7, 1955, in Paris to Chinese parents who had migrated from the Republic of China. His father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music; his mother, Marina Lu, was a singer. A child prodigy, Yo-Yo Ma began cello lessons at age four. When he was seven, the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in New York City. He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School while attending the Professional Children’s School and later earned a degree in anthropology from Harvard University in 1976.
Yo-Yo Ma’s career includes both classical performance and cross-cultural collaboration. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 19 Grammy Awards. Alongside solo work with major orchestras, he has collaborated with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Carlos Santana, and Zakir Hussain. He founded the Silk Road Ensemble to bring together musicians from regions along the historic Silk Road, exploring connections between musical traditions. His interests have also extended into education, film soundtracks, and public service. In 2006, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace.
Ma has received many honors, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of Arts (2001), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2022). He has performed for nine U.S. presidents, including at President Biden’s 2021 inauguration. He plays several instruments, including the 1712 “Davidov” Stradivarius, a 1733 Montagnana cello, and a 2003 instrument by Peter and Wendela Moes. Yo-Yo Ma is married to Jill Hornor, and they have two children.
Ma, Yo-Yo. “Our Common Nature.” Yo-Yo Ma, Sony Music Entertainment, www.yo-yoma.com/our-common-nature/. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025.
Yo-Yo Ma
Theme: The Musical Arts
About This Yo-Yo Ma Quotation [Commentary]
Yo-Yo Ma writes, “Music, like all of culture, helps us to understand our environment, each other, and ourselves.” For him, music is not separate from daily life—it is a way of listening, relating, and paying attention. It opens a path to understanding that includes emotion, connection, and reflection. Music, as part of culture, helps us recognize what matters. It speaks across boundaries and touches something essential in our shared experience.
He continues, “Culture helps turn ‘them’ into ‘us.’” In this, Yo-Yo Ma points to music’s ability to bring people into relationship. Music does not erase difference, but it invites empathy. It softens separation and brings forward what connects us. Reflecting on his own experience, he shares that Bach’s cello suites have offered him “sustenance, comfort, and joy” for nearly sixty years. These pieces have accompanied him through stress, celebration, and loss—showing how music can stay close to the human heart across time and change.
“Culture helps us to imagine a better future,” he says. For Yo-Yo Ma, this is not abstract. Culture, including music, holds practical hope. It reminds us that “nature is part of our humanity,” and that imagination arises from our relationship with the earth and each other. Music is one way we care—for the world, for one another, and for the inner life. Its presence helps us live with greater awareness, and helps us remember that understanding is not only about thought, but about feeling and connection.
Yo-Yo Ma’s Discography
His discography of more than 120 albums (including 19 Grammy Award winners) ranges from iconic renditions of the Western classical canon to recordings that defy categorization, such as “Hush” with Bobby McFerrin and the “Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Yo-Yo’s recent releases include “Six Evolutions,” his third recording of Bach’s cello suites, and “Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97 ‘Archduke,’” the third in a new series of Beethoven recordings with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Yo-Yo’s latest album, “Merci,” with pianist Kathryn Stott, features the music of Gabriel Fauré, following the arcs of Fauré’s inspiration and influence in a deeply personal expression of gratitude for the relationships that make music magic.
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