Ma, Yo-Yo Filmography

• Blue Gold: American Jeans (2012)
• 9/11 Memorial from Ground Zero, Tenth Anniverary (2011)
• Extraordinary Minds: Yo-Yo Ma (2011)
• The Music Instinct (2009)
• Chris Botti in Boston (2009)
• President Obama: The Inauguration (2009)
• Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy & Peace (2008)
• The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (2007)
• The Music of 'Memoirs' (2006)
• Nobel Peace Prize Concert (2005)
• The 77th Annual Academy Awards (2005)
• Great Conversations in Music (2005)
• Beethoven: Triple Concerto/Choral Fantasy (2003)
• The 45th Annual Grammy Awards (2003)
• XIX Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony (2002)
• A Centennial Toast to Symphony Hall (2002)
• Multiple Identities: Encounters with Daniel Barenboim (2002)
• Classic Yo-Yo Ma (2001)
• Mark Morris Dance Group: A Dance Center in Brooklyn (1998)
• Bach Cello Suite #1: The Music Garden (1997)
• Yo-Yo Ma Inspired by Bach (1997)
• Bach Cello Suite #6: Six Gestures (1997)
• Bach Cello Suite #5: Struggle for Hope (1997)
• Bach Cello Suite #4: Sarabande (1997)
• Bach Cello Suite #3: Falling Down Stairs (1997)
• Warrior Songs: King Gesar (1997)
• Bach Cello Suite #2: The Sound of Carceri (1997)
• Isaac Stern: A Life - A Biography in Music (1993)
• An American Reunion: The People's Inaugural Celebration (1993)
• The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (1992)
• Carnegie Hall at 100: A Place of Dreams (1991)
• Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1990)
• Tchaikovsky: 150th Birthday Gala from Leningrad (1990)
• Presidential Inaugural Gala (1989)
• Carnegie Hall: The Grand Reopening (1987)
• Black Lights White Shadows (1986)
• Liberty Weekend (1986)
• Ozawa (1985)

Famous quotes by Yo-Yo Ma:

"There is no culture in the world that we have not benefited from."

"Our (nation's) cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of understanding and experience."

"I think I actually enjoy practicing now more than seven years ago because you're really doing something totally specific."

"It was just so sweet. It was personally sweet but what he did was actually emotionally right, for the score."

"He's just so much a master of the material, and that's also based on the deep knowledge of the jazz world, of the American musical theater. By having had such a wide and deep history in all these different musical genres he can pick and choose at any moment what needs to be and it's always organic, it's always him, because all of these worlds are a part of him."

"He made a score that in some ways is very spare, which fits with the period that is represented in the film, which is actually a unique period in Japanese history because it was a period of transition. Hence, you have all these instruments in transition as well."

"I think it's pretty rare to have the opportunity to work with so many people that I admire in one project."

"Early on he was thinking somehow in the recesses of his mind that 'Hey, maybe we should do that,' and I know he was interested in the possibility of setting the book to music."

"After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is."

"From the sight-reading abilities of the students who came to the [reading sessions], 95% of whom were not music majors, to the great questions and comments we got from students in the classes, to the amazing enthusiasm and energy of the jam session, everywhere we went we could feel the intelligence and open-mindedness of Harvard undergraduates."

"Good things happen when you meet strangers."

"There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge."

"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."

"I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment."

"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."

"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."

"The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina."

"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."

"I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music, if thought of as a language, would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial."