Fans all abuzz over legendary cellist's visit.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

When you are Yo-Yo Ma, you:

Are the world's finest cellist.

Play with the leading artists and orchestras of our time.

Have won every major musical award imaginable, including the 2001 National Medal of the Arts.

Make only best-selling recordings.

Perform regularly on the PBS Series "Live from Lincoln Center."

Are featured on the Oscar-winning soundtrack for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Make out-of-the-box crossover albums such as "Obrigado Brazio," "Silk Road Journeys," "Appalachian Journey," "Soul of the Tango," "Anything Goes," "Japanese Melodies" and "Bolling: Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio."

Receive more concert offers than you can ever fulfill.

Have everyone wanting your time.

Play to capacity audiences everywhere (including Eugene's Hult Center on Thursday, which reportedly sold out in less than two hours).

Don't need to do interviews.

Which is the case leading up to his performance with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra. But just thinking about the prospect of talking with the cello god raises a daunting challenge: What would you ask a man who has been written about by everyone under the sun? What do people still want to know about him?

Who better to answer that question than those who know - and admire - him most: fellow cellists, such as those in the award-winning South Eugene High School String Ensemble and Orchestra, many of whom also play in the Eugene Youth Symphony?

"What inspired you to start playing the cello and what kept you playing the cello?" was what Patrick McCleery wanted to know.

Practical matters concerned others. "How much do you practice?" (Roy Butler), "Have you ever had difficulty playing in public?" (Eric Huntsberger), "How do you maintain patience and discipline?" (Lauren McShane), "Do you miss playing in an orchestra section?" (Marika Tsolakis) and "What piece of music do you love to play the most?" (Maria Bybee).

Looking for even more tips, Jessica Jerrit would ask him "to do a master class."

But because Yo-Yo Ma will arrive in Eugene barely in time for an afternoon rehearsal before that night's concert, a master class probably isn't in the cards. Whatever hints they pick up will come at the concert.

And they are definitely anticipating the concert.

"I have always been in awe of Yo-Yo Ma's music - his passionate playing, unrivaled skill and technical demand of the instrument," says Jenny Nissel. "I cannot imagine what an incredible experience it will be to actually hear him live."

Same goes for Roy Matsunaga: `I expect to leave the concert with the kind of awe a guitarist at a Yardbirds concert would leave with in the '60s.'

Getting a close-up look at Yo-Yo Ma will be David Chinberg, who will be seated only a few feet away in the Eugene Symphony's cello section. If he gets a chance to say something to him, it will likely be, "In what direction is your musical passion leading you currently?"

Chinberg is fascinated by Ma's ease in moving from one unusual project to another. "I am very interested in what has captured his imagination at this point in time."

Also eager to chat with Ma is Steven Pologe, a cellist who teaches at the University of Oregon Music School and plays in the Oregon String Quartet and the Pacifica Trio. He and Ma have known each other for many years.

`I'd just go up and say, `How are you doing? How is your family?' ' Pologe says.

As teenagers, Pologe and Ma were roommates at a cello camp (Meadow Mount) in upstate New York. Although only 14, Ma was already a star.

"When I heard him playing in the room right above mine, it was rarely the cello repertoire. What I would hear him playing was the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, the Sibelius Violin Concerto," Pologe recalls.

"He had already mastered the cello repertoire technically so he was just entertaining himself with the violin repertoire." Adds Pologe, "I have great warmth for Yo-Yo. I have always found him to be very generous, very caring. Of course, he's highly intelligent. And it's not that common for someone who is such a superstar to continue to be so generous as he has been throughout his career."

Pologe points out that when Ma was in Eugene in 1995, he gave an evening concert, then was scheduled to practice the next morning before flying on to a concert that night in Seattle. But when Pologe asked him to do an impromptu morning master class, he dropped everything.

`He walked in, and he handed his $3 million Stradivarius (cello) to someone he didn't know and said, `If you'd like to play it, feel free.' The kids passed around his cello,' Pologe says.

"We sat casually in a circle and yakked for a while. Then a handful of my students played for him, and he made comments and suggestions and coerced them to play more expressively. He inspired everyone."

Pologe's anticipation at reuniting with Ma is perhaps surpassed only by the Eugene Symphony's music director and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.

"I'm speechless," Guerrero says. "Having a living legend come to Eugene and share the stage with our orchestra is a humbling experience."

While Guerrero has never conducted with Ma before, he has seen him many times.

"I'm honored and privileged and proud that he chose Eugene as one of his stops. I think that's a testament to what we're doing. I'm sure he has heard some rumors about what's happening in our town and he wants to be a part of it."

While Guerrero is "thrilled" over Ma's appearance, he wants one thing made clear: "We're not going to be playing with Yo-Yo; he's going to be playing with us."

In an unusual feat, Ma will perform not one but two concertos with the orchestra - Camille Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor and Antonin Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor. In addition, the orchestra will do Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia."

With his boyish smile and open-faced charm, Ma is, Guerrero reports, very much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy.

"Yo-Yo is someone special in the classical world. Someone who definitely has his feet on the ground. He's not one of those temperamental artists. He's just a regular man who has an incredible gift and enjoys being with the audiences," Guerrero says. "Hopefully, this will be the first of many visits by him, and hopefully the first of many visits by artists like him.

"It's history in the making."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Yo-Yo Ma

What: The famed cellist plays concertos by Camille Saint-Saens and Antonin Dvorak with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: The Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street

Tickets: Concert is sold out

CAPTION(S):

Yo-Yo Ma's concert at the Hult Center Thursday sold out in two hours.