Yo-Yo Ma quotes

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist acclaimed for his extraordinary technique and rich tone. His career spans multiple genres, including classical, folk, and world music collaborations. He continues to inspire audiences worldwide with his artistry and dedication to cultural exchange. Here are 52 of his quotes:

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. (Yo-Yo Ma)
Good things happen when you meet strangers. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
One of the things I love about music is live performance. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
I figured out that my passion is not really for music. My passion is actually for people. So the exploration into different musics of different times has to do with trying to figure out who these people are, what this music represents and what context do we want to give it and what does it mean to us right now. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. (Yo-Yo Ma)
The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
One of the most interesting aspects of the film project was collaborating with so many people - directors, filmmakers, and writers - over a five-year period. I learned that there are two components to this. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
We may be coming to a new golden age of instrument making. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you sign on to something, there will be issues of trust, deep trust, the way the members of a string quartet have to trust one another. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
Music has always been transnational; people pick up whatever interests them, and certainly a lot of classical music has absorbed influences from all over the world. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. (Yo-Yo Ma)
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. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
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. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma
With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear. View quote
Yo-Yo Ma