The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Eclectic superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma says that culture and the arts are vital to our society and to education and he has Three Big Ideas about what we can do to help the in America.

By Jacob Stockinger

Classical music organizations of all kinds are wondering what they can do to foster a better appreciation of the arts and to put the performing arts on a more solid financial footing with broader public and political acceptance.

Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma (below top), who, in addition to his world-wide career as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist,  has also been a creative consultant to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and who has performed with the eclectic Silk Road Ensemble (below bottom), thinks he has the answer.

At bottom is a YouTube video of Ma playing a movement of a solo cello suite by J.S. Bach that has had almost 10 million hits:

And the Harvard-educated Ma, who describes himself as a “venture culturalist”  revealed his view about the need for diversity and his Three Big Ideas recently in the Nancy Hank Lecture on Arts Advocacy Day in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. He linked and emphasized the role of the arts in all education and in economic development.

And as always, NPR’s outstanding classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence” was on top of the story.

Here is a link with a story and a video of the complete speech. Spread the word and share it — his remarks deserve it:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/04/09/176681242/can-yo-yo-ma-fix-the-arts

Be sure to read some of the readers’ comments, which I find most enlightening –- especially the story about and quote by Winston Churchill.