Classical music is one of the best things that ever happened to mankind. If you get introduced to it in the right way, it becomes your friend for life. Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes by Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes From Yo-Yo Ma In performance, we have a greater purpose. The greater purpose is that we're communing together, and we want this moment to be really special for all of us. Because otherwise, why bother to have come at all? It's not about proving anything. It's about sharing something. Yo-Yo Ma special together want I play an instrument that has four strings, and I'm still trying to get it right. What I've tried to do in the process of playing these four strings is to try and understand the people I meet, the stories they have to tell. And then become an advocate for them and their stories through music. Yo-Yo Ma play trying people 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. Yo-Yo Ma musician roles understanding One of the things I love about music is live performance. Yo-Yo Ma things-i-love music-is performances 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. Yo-Yo Ma views want home One of the marks of a great teacher lies not only in an ability to impart knowledge but also in knowing when to encourage a student to go off on his own. Yo-Yo Ma teacher lying knowledge When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it. Yo-Yo Ma balance feelings thinking 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. Yo-Yo Ma leap-of-faith together fall When people ask me how they should approach performance, I always tell them the professional musician should aspire to the state of the beginner. Yo-Yo Ma beginners musician people Good things happen when you meet strangers. Yo-Yo Ma good-things stranger happens My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture. Yo-Yo Ma arena political culture 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. Yo-Yo Ma influence people world With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear. Yo-Yo Ma relax want years 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. Yo-Yo Ma issues way ideas Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound. Yo-Yo Ma clarity sound ideas Nobody else can make the sound you make. Yo-Yo Ma sound I want to investigate different cultures, to see how their identities and values affect their music. It's one way I can get to know our world, at least to a certain depth. Yo-Yo Ma our-world depth identity 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. Yo-Yo Ma pieces roles thinking I don't always have a five-year plan. One thing you must do in life is keep your learning curve as high as possible. Yo-Yo Ma curves planning years Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also. Yo-Yo Ma jazz force musician
