When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it. Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes by Yo-Yo Ma More Quotes From Yo-Yo Ma I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world. Yo-Yo Ma growing-up wish world The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina. Yo-Yo Ma argentina combination culture Music has always been transnational. Yo-Yo Ma creativity You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another. Yo-Yo Ma phases answers years Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it. Yo-Yo Ma imagining-yourself brain memories What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do. Yo-Yo Ma age people thinking I love grocery shopping when I'm home. That's what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests. Yo-Yo Ma shopping home thinking I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered. Yo-Yo Ma talking people years There are limits to how much sound a cello can make. That's part of the framing of acoustical instruments. Finding what those limits might be, and then trying to suggest perhaps even the illusion of going beyond is part of that kind of effort. Yo-Yo Ma effort sound trying Many of the Central Asians know Russian, and Ted Levin speaks it fluently. I speak Chinese, but Mongolian is completely different, so we had to have translators. Yo-Yo Ma chinese different speak The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted. Yo-Yo Ma citizens artist thinking Once something is memorable, it's living and you're using it. That to me is the foundation of a creative society. Yo-Yo Ma foundation creative memorable Sound is ephemeral, fleeting, but some sort of a physical manifestation can help you hold on to it longer in time. I'm sure of this; I've always thought the sound that you make is just the tip of the iceberg, like the person that you see physically is just the tip of the iceberg as well. Yo-Yo Ma tip-of-the-iceberg fleeting sound The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing. Yo-Yo Ma cds communication ideas I really would like to be involved in things and to understand things, and in some ways you've got to be careful what you wish for because I feel very, very blessed to have such an interesting life and to be able to have little snapshots of lives of people from many different parts of the world. Yo-Yo Ma blessed people interesting As a child, you respond physically, tactically. You're delighted by sound, you're delighted by recognizing something. It's like hide and seek. Is it there? Is it not there? Is it this note? Is it not this note? It's one fantastic game. Yo-Yo Ma games sound children Children, in a way, are constant learners. Certainly sponge-like. Absorbing everything without careful analysis, even though, at the same time, they are certainly capable of incredible insights. Yo-Yo Ma analysis children way I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy. Yo-Yo Ma joy way thinking You must have a reason to be in the places to which you go, and you must do only things that you really care about. Yo-Yo Ma care reason This middle age thing is a little weird. Some friends and mentors are gone, and there's a very forward-looking new generation coming up behind me. So it's very much finding my own place. Yo-Yo Ma mentor generations age
