Yann Tiersen
Background information
Birth name	Yann Pierre Tiersen
Born	(1970-06-23) 23 June 1970 (age 42)
Origin	Brest, Brittany, France
Genres	Minimalist, avant-garde
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Piano, violin, accordion, guitar, toy piano, voice, and various others
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Sine Terra Firma, Ici, d'ailleurs..., EMI, Virgin, Mute, ANTI-
Associated acts	Claire Pichet, Dominique A, Françoiz Breut, Natacha Régnier, Shannon Wright
Website	link

Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a musician from France.^[1][2] His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks with a distinctive sound that is always involved. It can be recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments; primarily the guitar, synthesizer or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter.

Tiersen is often mistaken as a composer of soundtracks, himself saying "I'm not a composer and I really don't have a classical background",^[3] but his real focus is on touring and studio albums which just happen to often be suitable for film. His most famous soundtrack for the film Amélie was primarily made up of tracks taken from his first two studio albums.^[4]

Biography and career[link]

The early years: 1970–1992[link]

Yann Tiersen was born in Brest in the Finistère département in Brittany in northwestern France, in 1970, into a family of Belgian and Norwegian origins.^[5] He started learning piano at the age of four, violin at the age of six, and received classical training at several musical academies, including those in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne.^[6] In the early 1980s when he was a teenager he was influenced by the punk subculture, and bands like The Stooges and Joy Division.^[7] In 1983, at the age of 13, he broke his violin, bought an electric guitar, and formed a rock band. Tiersen was now living in Rennes, and this turned out to be the perfect place for his musical career. In fact, Rennes is home to the three-day music festival Rencontres Trans Musicales, held annually in December, giving him the opportunity to see acts like Nirvana, Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Television, and Suicide. A few years later, when his band broke up, Tiersen bought a cheap mixing desk, an 8-track reel-to-reel audio tape recording, and started recording music solo with a synthesizer, a sampler, and a drum machine.^[8]

Debut and national acclaim: 1993–2000[link]

Before releasing film scores under his own name, Tiersen recorded background music for a number of plays and short films. In the summer of 1993, Tiersen stayed in his apartment, recording music alone with an electric guitar, a violin, and an accordion, guided by his vision of “a musical anarchy”. By the end of that summer, Tiersen had recorded over forty tracks, which would form most of his first two albums. Tiersen's debut album, La Valse des monstres, limited to 1,000 copies only, was released in June 1995 by independent record label Sine Terra Firma, and then it was reissued by Nancy-based record label Ici d'ailleurs in 1998 as the second album of its catalogue. The 17-track album was inspired by and written for the theatrical adaptations of Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic Freaks, and Yukio Mishima's 1955 version of Noh play The Damask Drum. One year later, in April 1996, he released Rue des cascades, a collection of short pieces recorded with toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion, and mandolin. The title track, sung by French soloist singer Claire Pichet, will be used about one year later for the Palme d'Or nominated French drama film The Dreamlife of Angels,^[9] and several tracks will find a much larger audience five years later when they were featured on the soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie.^[8] Tiersen played almost all the instruments both in the studio and in concert, and this gave him a theatrical appeal as a one-man show, which allowed him to perform, among others, at the 1996 edition of the Avignon Festival, the oldest extant festival in France and one of the world's greatest.^[10]

Tiersen rose to domestic fame upon the release of his third studio album, Le Phare (English: The Light House) in 1998. The album was recorded in a self-imposed seclusion on the isle of Ushant (Breton: Enez Eusa, French: Ouessant) at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of metropolitan France, where Tiersen spent two months living in a rented house. At night, he watched the Phare du Creach (English: Kreac'h or Créac'h lighthouse), one of the most powerful lighthouse in the world, and was fascinated by the stunning scenery repeated every night. Le Phare, which featured Claire Pichet, French singer and songwriter Dominique A, and French drummer and percussionist Sacha Toorop, went on to sell over 160,000 copies, confirming Tiersen's status as one of the most pioneering and original artists of his generation and commencing a run of successful albums.^[8] Three songs from this album, "La Dispute", "La Noyee", and "Sur le fil" were used later for the soundtrack of Amélie, while "L'Homme aux bras ballants", written and composed by Dominique A, was also the soundtrack to Laurent Gorgiard's 1997 short animation film by the same name. Its single, "Monochrome", sung by Dominique A, was a radio hit and propelled the album. Le Phare was his first album to chart climbing to number 50 in the French Albums Chart.^[11]

In that period Tiersen provided a new arrangement and played strings, vibraphone, bell, mandolin, electric guitar, and bass guitar for the song "À ton étoile" by French rock band Noir Désir on their 1998 remix album One Trip/One Noise,^[12] recorded background music for the award-winning and multi-nominated film The Dreamlife of Angels (French: La Vie rêvée des anges),^[9][13] for André Téchiné's Alice et Martin, released in 1998, and Christine Carrière's Qui plume la lune?, released in 1999, and also recorded Bästard ~ Yann Tiersen, a 3-track extended play released in 1998 in collaboration with French electronic rock band Bästard, and his first live album, Black Session: Yann Tiersen. The live album was recorded on 2 December 1998 as the opening act of the Rencontres Trans Musicales in the Salle Serreau at the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes, for the C'est Lenoir show broadcasted on the French public radio station France Inter. The album, which features Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy Neil Hannon, singer and songwriter Bertrand Cantat of Noir Désir, singer and illustrator Françoiz Breut, anglophone French rock band The Married Monk (Christian Quermalet, Philippe Lebruman, Etienne Jaumet, Nicolas Courret), French folk rock group Têtes Raides (Christian Olivier, Grègoire Simon, Pascal Olivier, Anne-Gaëlle Bisquay, Serge Bégout, Jean-Luc Millot, and Edith Bégou), the string quartet Quatuor à cordes, guitarist and composer Olivier Mellano, and author Mathieu Boogaerts, as well as his usual collaborators and friends, Claire Pichet and Dominique A, was recorded by France International, mastered by Radio France, and released in CD format one year later on 2 November 1999.^[14]

In 1999, Tiersen with The Married Monk, Claire Pichet, and Olivier Mellano, released his first collaboration album, Tout est calme. The 26 minutes, 10 tracks mini album peaked at number 45 on the French Albums Chart.^[11][15] The album produced one single, "Les Grandes marées", and Tiersen also featured on The Divine Comedy's single "Gin Soaked Boy" released on that same year, on three tracks for Françoiz Breut's second studio album Vingt à Trente Mille Jours (English: Twenty to Thirty Thousand Days), and on Têtes Raides' Gratte-poil, both released in 2000.

[edit] Amélie and global recognition: 2001–2009

Tiersen remained relatively unknown outside France until the release of his score for the acclaimed film Amélie (Original French title: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain) in 2001. French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had something else in mind for the film score, but one day one of his production assistants put on a CD of Tiersen, and the director found it absolutely superb. Jeunet bought all of Tiersen's albums, and then contacted him to see if the Breton composer was interested in writing the film score for Amélie. In two weeks, Tiersen composed nineteen pieces for the film and also allowed the production to take anything they wanted from his other records.^[16] Amélie received great critical acclaim and was a box-office success. The film went on to win the Best Film award at the European Film Awards, four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, two BAFTA Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards. The soundtrack was a mixture of both new and previously released material, and Tiersen was also the recipient of the César Award for Best Music Written for a Film, and of the World Soundtrack Academy award. The soundtrack album charted in many countries, including the number one position on the French Albums Chart.^[17][2]

While he was writing the film score for Amélie Tiersen was also preparing his fifth studio album L'Absente.^[2] The album was characterized by several contributions including 35-member Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne, viola player Bertrand Lambert, violinists Yann Bisquay and Sophie Naboulay, Natacha Régnier, and saxophonist Grégoire Simon, and long-time collaborators Dominique A, Christine Ott, Lisa Germano, Neil Hannon, Têtes Raides, Christian Quermalet, Marc Sens, and Sacha Toorop. The album, which was released on 5 June 2001 through EMI France, was preceded by two promotional singles for "A quai" and "Bagatelle" respectively. Tiersen provided strings and vibraphone to two tracks, "Roma Amor" and "Holidays", featured on The Married Monk's compilation album of the same name.

At this time he was married to Belgian actress Natacha Régnier, co-star of The Dreamlife of Angels. Régnier become a singer and Tiersen wrote three songs for her including his arrangement of Georges Brassens' "Le Parapluie", a song featured on the tribute album Les Oiseaux de passage, released in 2001. That same year they went on tour in France and abroad. They have a daughter, Lise, born in 2002, but they have since been divorced.^[18] In this period, Tiersen also took his music out around the world, playing shows with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet.^[8] On 15, 16, and 17 February 2002, Tiersen with many of the collaborators who participated in the recording sessions for L'Absente plus Claire Pichet, violinists Nicholas Stevens and Renaud Lhoest, bassist Jean-François Assy, viola player Olivier Tilkin, and uilleann pipes, bagpipes, and low whistle player Ronan Le Bars, performed live at the Cité de la Musique (English: City of Music) in Paris. Part of these three concerts went on to form Tiersen's second live album C'était ici (English: It Was Here), which was released through EMI France on 30 September 2002.^[19]

Tiersen's skills as a composer of film scores were much in demand, and the soundtrack for Amélie was soon followed by the film score for Good Bye, Lenin!, a 2003 German tragicomedy film directed by Wolfgang Becker.^[8] The film was both a commercial and a critical success and won several awards including the César Award for Best Film from the European Union, Best Film at the European Film Awards, the German Film Awards for Outstanding Film, Best European Film at the Goya Awards, Best Foreign Language Film for the London Film Critics' Circle, and it was also listed in the Empire magazine 2010's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema"^[20] Tiersen was the recipient of the German Film Awards for Outstanding Music. On 15 November 2003, Tiersen with Stuart A. Staples, the lead singer of indie band Tindersticks, actress and singer Jane Birkin, singer and vocalist for Cocteau Twins Elizabeth Fraser, singer and songwriter Christophe Miossec, and Dominique A released 3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH (English: 3 New Tracks for the Benefit of FIDH), a 3-track CD that was part of the On Aime, On Aide benefit collection for raising funds for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).^[21]

Tiersen's list of collaborators continues to grow album after album and in October 2004 released Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright, a collaboration album with American singer-songwriter Shannon Wright, was released in October 2004, and in the same year he is featured on The Divine Comedy's album Absent Friends. In 2005, Tiersen released his fifth studio album Les Retrouvailles. The album features several collaborators including the Orchestre National de Paris, singers Elizabeth Fraser, Jane Birkin, Stuart A. Staples, Dominique A, and Miossec, strings players Jean-François Assy, Frederic Dessus, Guillaume Fontanarosa, Bertrand Causse, Anne Causse Biragnet, Armelle Legoff, Frédéric Haffner, flute player Elliott, drummer Ludovic Morillon, and ondes Martenot player Christine Ott. Les Retrouvailles also includes a DVD short film entitled La Traversée, directed by Aurélie du Boys, which documents the making of the album in Ushant, and incorporates an animated video for the non-album track, "Le Train", and also live versions of a handful of songs. The album produced a single, "Kala", sung by Elizabeth Fraser, and Tiersen also played piano on Staples' solo debut album, Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04. The subsequent world tour of 2006 replaced the multi-instrumental ensemble with electric guitars and an ondes Martenot, and produced his third live album, On Tour, which was released together with a DVD, directed by Aurélie du Boys, about the tour, in November 2006. In 2006, he also released two singles, "La Mancha" and "La Rade", and he was featured on The Endless Rise of the Sun, third studio album by electronic group Smooth, Raides à la ville extended play by Katel, and 13m² by David Delabrosse.

2008 saw his return after a five years absence as a composer of film scores when he provided the background music for Tabarly, a Pierre Marcel's documentary film about the French sailor, two-time champion of the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, and father of French yachting Éric Tabarly. The documentary was released on June 2008 exactly ten years after his death. Éric Tabarly was lost at Irish Sea when struck by a gaff of his Pen Duick during heavy swell and knocked overboard from his yacht near Wales while on his way to the Fife Regatta in Scotland. His body was recovered five weeks later off the coast of Ireland by a French fishing trawler. The documentary, narrated by Tabarly himself, traces his sporting career until his last meal in Ushant.^[8] Before the end of the decade, Tiersen also contributed to Christine Ott's debut solo album Solitude Nomade, and to Miossec's seventh studio album Finistériens.

[edit] Dust Lane and Skyline: 2010–present

October 2010 saw the release of Tiersen’s sixth studio album titled Dust Lane. The album was two years in the making and was largely recorded in Ushant, France. Further parts were recorded in the Philippines. The album is preoccupied with mortality; during the recording sessions Tiersen lost his mother and a close friend. The recordings started out as simple song based tracks with Tiersen playing acoustic guitar, mandolin and bouzouki. New layers were added to the recordings creating a more complex sound. Then an array of vintage synthesisers and electric guitars were added to create further textures.^[22][23] The album was released by Mute Records in Europe and ANTI- Records in the US.^[24][25] The record was promoted in a tour beginning in October 2010, starting in New York. Dust Lane was preceded by the release of the vinyl EP PALESTINE and by the single for "Ashes". In 2010, Tiersen also contributed to the tribute album to cross-genre, experimental music group Coil The Dark Age of Love by This Immortal Coil, a one-off tribute formation, and to Li(f)e, the fourth solo studio album by hip-hop artist Sage Francis.

October 2011 saw the European release of his seventh studio album, Skyline. The nine-track album, a follow on from his Dark Lane, was once again recorded at Tiersen's home on the island of Ushant in the south-western end of the English Channel, with further parts recorded in Paris, San Francisco, Berlin, and Nashville. It was subsequently mixed by producer Ken Thomas in Leeds, and mastered by Ray Staff in London.^[8] The album produced the singles for "Monuments" and "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow". On 18 February 2012, Tiersen with Lionel Laquerriere, and Thomas Poli, presented his side project, Elektronische Staubband, at La Route du Rock music festival in Saint-Malo. It was about an hour of krautrock, electronic, and experimental music involving a dozen of synthesizers and analog keyboards with the first three pieces of the set list taken from Dust Lane and the remaining five from Skyline.^[26] Tiersen was also chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival on March 2012 in Minehead, England.^[27] Skyline was released in North America via ANTI- Records on 17 April 2012, and it was followed by the Skyline Tour with dates in the United States, Canada, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, France, Slovak Republic, Austria, Finland, and the United Kingdom.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Soundtracks[link]

Live albums[link]

Singles and EPs[link]

• Rue des cascades (7" vinyl EP) (1996)
• Black Session (EP promo) (1998)
• "La Vie rêvée des anges" (CD single) (1998)
• "Les Grandes marées" (1999)
• "Comptine d'un autre été : L'après-midi" (2001)
• "À quai" (CD single promo) (2001)
• "Bagatelle" (CD maxi promo) (2001)
• 3 titres inédits au profit de la FIDH (part of the On Aime, On Aide collection, composed to raise funds for the FIDH, sold exclusively at Fnac) (2003)
• "Kala" (2005)
• "La Mancha" (2006)
• "La Rade" (2006)
• PALESTINE (vinyl EP) (2010)
• "Ashes" (2010)
• "Monuments" (2011)
• "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow" (2011)

Collaborations[link]

Contributions[link]

• One Trip/One Noise (by Noir Désir) (1998)
  • "À ton étoile" (arrangements, strings, vibraphone, bell, mandolin, electric guitar and bass)
• "Gin Soaked Boy" (by The Divine Comedy) (1999)
• Vingt à Trente Mille Jours (by Françoiz Breut) (2000)
  • "Porsmouth" (vibraphone), "Vingt à trente mille jours" (vibraphone), "L'heure bleue" (violin), "Le verre pilé" (vibraphone); arrangements
• Gratte-poil (by Têtes Raides) (2000)
  • "Cabaret des nues" (violin)
• The Married Monk (by The Married Monk) (2001)
  • "Roma Amor" (strings, vibraphone), "Holidays" (strings) and "Cyro's Request" (vibraphone)
• Les oiseaux de passage (tribute to Georges Brassens) (2001)
  • cover of "Le parapluie" with Natacha Régnier
• Absent Friends (by The Divine Comedy) (2004)
  • "Sticks & Stones" (accordion); "Anthem for Bored Youth" (accordion), a track appearing only on the French limited edition
• Lucky Dog Recordings 03-04 (by Stuart A. Staples) (2005)
  • "She Don't Have to Be Good to Me" (piano)
• The Endless Rise of the Sun (by Smooth) (2006)
  • "The Endless Rise of the Sun" (keyboards)
• Raides à la ville (by Katel) (2006)
  • "La Vielle" (violin)
• 13m² (by David Delabrosse) (2006)
  • production and arrangements
• Solitude Nomade (by Christine Ott) (2009)
  • "Pensées sauvages" (violin)
• Finistériens (by Miossec) (2009)
  • music and arrangements
• Li(f)e (by Sage Francis) (2010)
  • production and arrangements on "The Best of Times"

DVDs[link]

See also[link]

• Tiersen

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yann Tiersen

Yo-Yo Ma 馬友友
Ma plays the cello during the "Presentation of the Crystal Award" at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 25, 2008.
Background information
Born	(1955-10-07) October 7, 1955 (age 56) Paris, France
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Cellist, composer, pedagogue
Instruments	Cello, piano, viola, violin
Years active	fl. ca. 1961–present
Labels	CBS, RCA, Sony Classical
Associated acts	Silk Road Ensemble
Website	yo-yoma.com
Notable instruments
Violoncello Davydov 1712 Stradivarius Domenico Montagnana 1733 Luis and Clark

Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is an American^[1] cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001^[2] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.^[3] Ma is regarded by some as the most famous cellist of the modern age.^[4]

Early life[link]

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music at Nanjing National Central University. His family moved to New York when he was five years old.

At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before settling on the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was seven.^[5][6] At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Ma attended Trinity School in New York but transferred to the Professional Children's School which he graduated at fifteen years of age. ^[7]He appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.

A painting featuring Yo-Yo Ma hanging in Currier House, his residence at Harvard University

Ma studied at the Juilliard School at age nine with Leonard Rose and briefly attended Columbia University before ultimately enrolling at Harvard University later on. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of nonagenarian cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. Ma would ultimately spend four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love with Mount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor his first summer there in 1972.^[8]

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976.^[9] In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.^[10]

Career[link]

Ma performs at the White House for (left to right, seated) President Ronald Reagan, Crown Princess Michiko and Crown Prince Akihito of Japan, and First Lady Nancy Reagan, 1987

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road, and records on the Sony Classical label.^[11] Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed Petunia, built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student that approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia, and it stuck.^[12] This cello, more than 270 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City.^[13] It was later recovered undamaged. Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré who passed it to him upon her death, and owned by the Vuitton Foundation. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player.^{[citation needed]} It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a modern cello made by Peter and Wendela Moes of Peissenberg, Germany, and one of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.^[14]

In 1997 he was featured on John Williams' soundtrack to the Hollywood film, Seven Years in Tibet. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and in 2003 on that of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha. Yo-Yo Ma has also worked with world-renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone and has recorded Morricone's compositions of the Dollars Trilogy including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He also has over 75 albums, 15 of which are Grammy Award winners. Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by UN then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.^[15]

On November 3, 2009, President Obama appointed Ma to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.^[16] His music was featured in the 2010 documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.^[17][18][19]

Playing style[link]

Ma with Condoleezza Rice after performing a duet at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards.

Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians.^[20] A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroque pieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushed him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece Naqoyqatsi. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

Notable live performances[link]

On July 5, 1986, Ma performed on the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live on ABC Television.^[21]. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park.

Ma performed a duet with Condoleezza Rice at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards. Ma was the first performer on September 11, 2002, at the site of the World Trade Center, while the first of the names of the dead were read in remembrance on the first anniversary of the attack on the WTC. He played the Sarabande from Bach's Suite in C minor (#5). He performed a special arrangement of Sting's "Fragile" with Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ma has also appeared as a Pennington Great Performers series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2005.

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along with Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet did play live, the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma was quoted as saying "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."^[22]

On May 3, 2009, Ma performed the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's "Self Comes to Mind" for solo cello and two percussionists with John Ferrari and Ayano Kataoka at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The work is based on a poetic description written for the composer of the evolution of brain into mind by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featured, at the premiere, a film of brain scans provided by Hanna Damasio plus other images, coordinated with the music during the performance.

On August 29, 2009, Ma performed at the funeral mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Pieces he performed included the Sarabande movement from Bach's Cello Suite No. 6, and Franck's Panis Angelicus with Placido Domingo.^[23]

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a noted fan of The Beatles, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello.

On October 16, 2011, Ma performed at the memorial for Steve Jobs held in Stanford University's Memorial Church.^[24]

In 2011, Ma performed with American dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley in the United States and in China at the U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.^[25]

Media appearances[link]

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, Arthur, as well as on The West Wing (episode "Noël", in which he performed the prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 at a Christmas dinner at the White House), Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In The Simpsons episode "Missionary: Impossible", Ma, (voiced by Hank Azaria) runs after Homer Simpson along with many other frequent guests of PBS.

He also starred in the visual accompaniment to his recordings of Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello.

Ma was also seen with former Apple Inc. and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs. Ma was often invited to press events for Jobs's companies, and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer.

Ma was a guest on the Not My Job segment of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.^[26]

On October 27, 2008, Ma appeared as a guest and performer on The Colbert Report.^[27] He was also a show's guest on November 1, 2011, where he performed songs from The Goat Rodeo Sessions with fellow musicians Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.^[28]

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America, in which Ma made an appearance, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, "Yo", had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.^[29][30]

Personal life[link]

Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor, a German language professor, in 1977. He proposed outside her apartment. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily, and reside in Winchester, Massachusetts.^[31] Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, who was also born in Paris, is a violinist married to Michael Dadap, a New York–based guitarist from the Philippines.^[32]

Discography[link]

Awards and recognitions[link]

Avery Fisher Prize

• 1978

Award of Distinction (International Cello Festival)

• 2007

Dan David Prize

• 2006

Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) (honoris causa)

• 2005 Princeton University

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

• 1996 Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios (Sony 57499)
• 1993 Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano (Sony 48191)
• 1992 Brahms: Piano Quartets Op. 25, Op. 26 (Sony 45846)
• 1987 Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations (CBS 42121)
• 1986 Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor Op. 38, and F Op. 99 (RCA 17022)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)
• 1995 The New York Album – Works of Albert, Bartók & Bloch (Sony 57961)
• 1993 Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante/Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme (Sony 48382)
• 1990 Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22/Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68 (CBS 44900)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance:

• 1985 Bach: The Unaccompanied Cello Suites (CBS 37867)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

• 1995 The New York Album, Stephen Albert: Cello Concerto (Sony 57961)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album:

• 1998 Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse (Sony Classical 66299)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album:

• 2010 Songs of Joy & Peace (Sony Classical B001BN1V8U)
• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)
• 2001 Appalachian Journey (Sony 66782)
• 1999 Soul of the Tango – The Music of Ástor Piazzolla (Sony Classical 63122)

Glenn Gould Prize

• 1999

Kennedy Center Honor

• 2011

Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album

• 2004 Obrigado Brazil (Sony 89935)

Léonie Sonning Music Prize

• 2006

National Medal of Arts

• 2001^[2]

Presidential Medal of Freedom

• Nominated: November 17, 2010^[33]
• Awarded: February 15, 2011^[34]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Asian Americans portal
	Biography portal
	Music portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yo-Yo Ma

• Official Website
• Yo-Yo Ma at Allmusic
• About Us, The Children's Orchestra Society, ChildrensOrch.org, 2007
• Yo-Yo Ma in Conversation from WGBH Radio Boston
• Yo-Yo Ma Interview on Time.com, October 2008
• Yo-Yo Ma Podcast Series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks
• Yo-Yo Ma TV Interview with Ennio Morricone from C Music TV
• 2006 Dan David Prize laureate
• Welcome to Baku: Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Ensemble with Alim Gasimov and Fargana," by Aida Huseinova in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 14:2 (Summer 2006), p. 14