HAVE CELLO, WILL TRAVEL YO-YO MA BRINGS BENEFIT OF HIS EXPERIENCES TO LATEST MUSICAL PROJECTS.Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor When asked if he's restless, Yo-Yo Ma
The question is prompted by the extraordinary and varied number of musical projects the world's most-famous cellist has been involved in during the past few years. His latest enthusiasm will be on display tonight at the Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheatre at 2301 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, California, USA, that is used primarily for music performances. The "bowl" in this context is the natural cavity in the earth into which the amphitheater is built, rather than the shape of the , where he's appearing with a number of the musicians on his new CD, ``Obrigado, Brazil.'' ``You know what musicians do?'' asks the good-humored Ma, who graduated from Juilliard and also has an anthropology degree from Harvard. ``Musicians travel. And from traveling you
It's evident when you talk to him that he's been thinking about a lot of things, which have led him on a number of musical journeys far afield from the classical world where he first made his mark with his recording of Bach's ``Suites for Unaccompanied un·ac·com·pa·nied adj. 1. Going or acting without companions or a companion: unaccompanied children on a flight. 2. Music Performed or scored without accompaniment. Cello'' 18 years ago. Of late, though, he has ventured into Americana with ``Appalachian Waltz'' (1996), tango with ``Soul of the Tango'' (1997), across Asia with ``Silk Roads Journeys - When Strangers Meet'' (2002) and now to Rio. And along the way he has continued his pursuit of classical music, including that of France in 1900 with ``Paris La Belle La Belle may be a place in the US:
``I think the great thing about Yo-Yo Ma is that he is one of the superstars of classical music, and he doesn't rest there,'' says David Sefton, artistic director of UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX Live. ``Take something like the 'Silk Road Project' ... it shows that he takes risks and uses his position to do interesting work. It's that combination of talent and the inquiring mind that I like.'' And Tom Schnabel, who directs KCRW's World Festival series for the bowl, says that Ma and Brazilian music, which has a tradition of having a classical music basis, fit perfectly. ``I think he could make anything fit perfectly,'' says Schnabel, ``but Brazilian music lends itself to the lyricism lyr·i·cism n. 1. a. The character or quality of subjectivity and sensuality of expression, especially in the arts. b. The quality or state of being melodious; melodiousness. 2. and virtuosity of the cello - especially in Yo-Yo Ma's hands.'' Schnabel also enthuses about the musicians that Ma is bringing to the Bowl tonight, including clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera Paquito D'Rivera (born 4 June, 1948) is a Cuban alto saxophonist, clarinetist and soprano saxophonist. Biography Paquito was a child prodigy. He started learning music with his father Tito Rivera at the age of 5, who was a well-known classical saxophonist and conductor in , vocalist Rosa Passos, guitarist brothers Sergio and Odair Assad, and pianist Kathryn Stott. How he got from Bach and Mozart to the music of Jobim, bossa novas and sambas is a reflection of Ma's passion for learning. ``I've loved Brazilian music since I was was an adolescent,'' says Ma, who was born in Paris but raised in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . ``But it's one thing to love something and another to participate.'' He says it was when he was making ``Soul of Tango,'' an album of compositions by Argentine Astor Piazolla, that he was urged by the musicians he was working with to listen to Brazilian music. It's these type of connections that Ma makes. ``I'm an old man now,'' Ma jokes. At 47, he's hardly old, but he has had a long career. A child prodigy Noun 1. child prodigy - a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age; "Mozart was a child prodigy" infant prodigy, wonder child child, kid, minor, nipper, tiddler, youngster, tike, shaver, small fry, nestling, fry, tyke - a young person of either at 5, he says that because he started young, he ``didn't make a conscious decision to be this or that.'' Ma, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., had a meteoric me·te·or·ic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or formed by a meteoroid. 2. Of or relating to the earth's atmosphere. 3. rise in the classical world, but more conventional concerns shaped his outlook on life - marriage and raising two children, who are 20 and 17. Now that they are mostly grown, things are changing, giving him more time to look around. While he's always had a wide range of interests (thus the anthropology degree), he's clearly trying to figure more things out about life and music. ``I don't think I could have done a lot of what I'm doing now 10 years ago because I wasn't ready to,'' he says. ``Knowledge of one thing leads to something else. If I hadn't worked with Mark O'Connor This article is about the American musician. For the English football (soccer) player, see Mark O'Connor (footballer). Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961 in Seattle, Washington) is widely considered to be the most prominent fiddler of his generation, and a and Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is a prominent contemporary bassist. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger. (on ``Appalachian Waltz''), I would not have become as interested in Baroque music Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750.[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era. .'' It may seem strange that Ma would suddenly become interested in something he was already steeped in. Here's how he explains it: The early-American fiddling style O'Connor used, he says, is the historical parallel to performance practice in the Baroque tradition. That in turn led him to an interest in even earlier music - to the 1500s and lute lute, musical instrument that has a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, which are plucked with the fingers. The long lute, with its neck much longer than its body, seems to have been older than the short lute, existing very early makers in Venice. And all of this relates in Ma's world. Another way of looking at it, he says, is that before things became classical, they were contemporary. Eventually it all comes back to the way Ma so eloquently interprets music - even classical pieces that he's performed numerous times before. ``All the things that pertain to looking at the world - my interest in anthropology, in people, in why people do things'' - he hesitates - ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how to put it ... can be put into music.'' Ma gives as an example Dvorak's ``Cello Concert,'' which he first recorded in 1986 and has played numerous times. Now that he has gone ``through a number of life experiences - including having children, one of the biggest life experiences'' - it has changed the way he looks at the piece. Being a parent, Ma notes, has also made him interested in youth. ``As an adolescent you're discovering the world for the first time ... so you're vastly open to things. I think all of music codes the eternal, codes what you're inner life is about.'' Which is why Ma works with young people and likes to hear and keep up on what they are doing. ``The alternative is a shrinking mental world, and that's not so good,'' he says. He points to a young Southern California cello maker named Mario Miralles as an example. He finds it fabulous that Miralles - Ma owns one of his cellos - is trying to evolve the old craft of instrument-making into something new for the 21st century. Last year, Ma played a carbon-fiber cello made by another young instrument maker for a concert on the Washington, D.C., mall. The temperature was in the high 90s and the cello stayed remarkably in tune, he says, something a traditional instrument would have problems doing. But trying something new is always a bit scary, he says. ``You're not sure whether you can get there. You have to depend on good guides who really want to share. I can't do it alone.'' So, like an adolescent, Ma tries to stay open to the world, though as he gets older, he says it's harder to get ready for his big trips. But he adds, ``I think you're willing to explore things and not put them off.'' ``At least I feel alive when I'm engaged in intense learning,'' he says with a laugh, as he has throughout the conversation. ``It keeps you young.'' Nothing wrong with that. Rob Lowman, (818) 713-3687 robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com YO-YO MA What: Sounds of Brazil with Paquito D'Rivera, Sergio and Odair Assad, Roas Passos and Kathryn Stott as part of KCRW's World Festival. Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. When: 7 tonight. Tickets: $1 to $100. Call (323) 850-2000 or go to ticketmaster.com. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Yo-Yo Ma plays the Hollywood Bowl tonight with many of the musicians on his new album, ``Obrigado, Brazil.'' |
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