The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma turns 60. NPR offers a capsule biography and generous sound samples from throughout his varied career.

By Jacob Stockinger

Have cello. Will play.

Any style. Any place.

Last Wednesday, superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, turned 60.

The unquestionable quality, astounding diversity and enviable longevity of his career will come as no surprise to Madison audiences.

After all, Ma (below, in a photo by Jason Bell for Sony Classical) has performed here many times, mostly at the Wisconsin Union Theater – he reopened the renovated Shannon Hall — but also at the Overture Center.

Ma has performed solo here. But he also has played with his longtime chamber music partner pianist Emanuel Ax and with the acclaimed Silk Road Ensemble and the bluegrass or roots music by violinist-composer Mark O’Conner.

And Ma has commissioned many works – including some by composers Osvaldo Golijov and John Adams – that have entered the mainstream repertoire. His influence on contemporary music will be felt for a very long time.

The Ear has met Ma in person a couple of times and found him to be as congenial and humorous as he is talented and original.

An iconic figure on TV and radio, Ma is a master of using the mass media although he never seems a crass self-promoter.

He is a veritable American cultural institution who also enjoys going on PBS for “Sesame Street” and “Live From Lincoln Center” as well as doing a cameo appearance playing unaccompanied Bach in the drama “The West Wing.” (You can hear him play the same piece in a YouTube video at the bottom that has more than 12 million hits.)

Perhaps you have also heard him live, maybe even more than once.

One thing is important but is overlooked by the NPR piece: The ever-reliable Ma is outstandingly successful at the box office. He is probably the most bankable and commercially successful American classical musician on the scene today. Ma’s career bodes well for the future of classical music that otherwise worries so many observers and participants.

You surely will appreciate the eminently readable and listenable post that Tim Huizenga wrote for the “Deceptive Cadence” blog on NPR or National Public Radio.

Here is a link:

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2015/10/07/446364616/the-diverse-world-of-yo-yo-ma

Do you have a birthday greeting for or memory of cellist Yo-Yo Ma?

Leave it in the COMMENT section.

The Ear wants to hear.