Born in Paris but raised in New York City, Yo-Yo Ma grew up to be a famous American cellist who still performs as a soloist with orchestras around the world.
Ma graduated from The Julliard School and Harvard University, but he started performing when he was only four and a half years old.
You may be wondering if any of those early performances were documented?
We’re glad you asked—because it turns out there is! Here is an amazing video of Yo-Yo Ma performing with his sister at the tender age of seven years old.
At the beginning of the video, Leonard Bernstein announces Ma at a benefit concert called The American Pageant of the Arts on November 29, 1962.
In his intro, Bernstein calls Ma a “child prodigy from China playing an old French composition for his American compatriots.” Bernard’s goal was to point out the unique cultural image that Ma brought to the performance. The event was held at the John F. Kennedy Library in front of many famous guests including President Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy. Yo-Yo his sister Yo Cheng Ma decided to play the first movement of “Concertina Three in A Major” by Jean-Baptiste Bravin.
We loved the fact that Bernstein strayed away from words like “kid,” “child” or “boy” when presenting Yo-Yo Ma.
It was obvious that he wanted to treat him with respect, as a real musician. We also learn that Yo-Yo came to the attention of the American audience through the great master Pablo Casals who had heard the young man play the cello and recognized his potential immediately.
It’s moments like this one when we’re grateful for the internet!
It’s wonderful that we’re able to see this magnificent performance, especially knowing that Yo-Yo Ma is a national treasure for his work with children.
He is a teacher, a mentor and an inspiration to many children aspiring to be musicians. Yo-Yo Ma regularly visits schools and gives concerts and recitals.
It’s admirable to see this great artist’s beginnings!
It seems like he remembers his beginnings as well, and wants to open as many doors as possible to the children he works with. This performance left us in awe! He and his sister have such poise up on that huge stage and they never miss a note.
Who knew that so much talent ran in the family?
Yo-Yo Ma’s father was a violinist and musicologist from China’s Shanghai region.
He specialized in composition and was widely respected for his talent as a music teacher. His mother is a mezzo-soprano from Hong Kong, and his older sister played the violin before obtaining a medical degree and becoming a pediatrician. Seeing how hardworking his family is, we’re not as surprised Yo-Yo memorized this piece at age seven! It’s not an easy task to do at such a young age. Even older and more experienced musicians rarely play pieces using muscle memory, because it’s not easy to get the intonation right on a string instrument.
It was thanks to this performance that Yo-Yo Ma was first featured in The New York Times.
Little did he know that they would write more than one thousand articles about him in the years that followed! Speaking of figures, we need to mention that Yo-Yo has recorded more than 90 albums and has received 18 Grammy Awards during his career. This video alone got more than two million YouTube views. Yo-Yo Ma and his cello (nicknamed Petunia) even performed John Williams’s “Air and Simple Gifts” at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama in 2009. He’s going to be a musical legend for a long time!
Be sure to watch the whole performance in the link below:
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
