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Sam Felder, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Photograph of Yo-Yo Ma by Sam Felder, taken 29 June 2002 at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C. (Flickr photo 231060669 'Yo Yo Ma at the folklife festival'); the live Flickr photo page shows the licence CC BY-SA 2.0 and date taken 2002-06-29 (checked 2026-10-24, consistent with the Commons page); Commons file 'Yo-Yo Ma.jpg' is a crop of that photo, tagged cc-by-sa-2.0 with a FlickreviewR pass (8 January 2007) and carries a personality-rights notice. Commons file dimensions 361 x 591 pixels, SHA-1 11d10a6751f4f02ec10e75258b30b10a6248dbd7 (matches the downloaded file); saved unchanged, never resized or upscaled. CAVEATS: low resolution, and parts of other people appear at the picture edges. Rejected: the Wikidata P18 file 'Yo-Yo Ma in 2018 (cropped).jpg' (Joi Ito, CC BY 2.0, 2141 x 2333) because its Flickr source page (photo 43965848294) returned an error page on 2026-10-24, so the licence could not be re-verified live and the only record is the Commons review of 2020 without an archive capture; next step if a better image is wanted: re-check that page or obtain an archive capture. · CC BY-SA 2.0 (photo-level licence on Flickr by Sam Felder; Commons FlickreviewR passed)
musician · Contemporary
Yo-Yo Ma
b. 1955
Known For
artisticculturaleducational
Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.
Trait Constellation
Key Achievements
He became one of the leading cellists of his generation, recording most of the solo cello repertoire and winning ten Grammy awards between 1984 and 1997, and he commissioned and premiered works by contemporary American composers.
He made Bach's unaccompanied cello suites a signature repertoire, winning a Grammy for his recording in 1984 and presenting a 1990s series of films that set the suites alongside dance, architecture, garden design and other arts.
In 1998 he conceived Silkroad, bringing musicians from the lands of the Silk Road together as an ensemble and later a nonprofit that commissions new music and runs education programmes; critics have both praised its collaboration and questioned its depth.
Moments That Reveal Them
For his tango album Soul of the Tango he studied a recording of Rostropovich rehearsing Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango and travelled to Buenos Aires to visit tango clubs.
This is consistent with a habit of immersing himself in an unfamiliar tradition before performing it. Curiosity
In the 1990s he presented films of Bach's cello suites with choreographer Mark Morris, a Kabuki artist, a garden designer, ice dancers and a film director.
This is consistent with a readiness to test a core work against other art forms through partnerships. Cross-Domain Range
Turning Points
In 1998 he began Silkroad, moving from solo and chamber performance to convening and commissioning with musicians from many traditions.
This is consistent with a readiness to start and lead a long-running initiative beyond his solo career. Proactive Agency
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Sources
- Yo-Yo Ma (Q234891) -- verified live via the Wikidata API (2026-10-24): English label 'Yo-Yo Ma', description 'American cellist (born 1955)', Korean label '요요 마', born 7 October 1955, no death date, P18 'Yo-Yo Ma in 2018 (cropped).jpg'. Orientation only; not used as support for any row.
- Encyclopedia.com, 'Yo-Yo Ma' (encyclopedia.com), page read in full as raw text; it reproduces two reference entries (a Contemporary Musicians-style profile and a longer biographical entry written in the late 1990s). They describe a world-famous cellist who has recorded most of the solo cello repertoire; his Avery Fisher Prize (1978), ten Grammy awards between 1984 and 1997 including Bach's unaccompanied suites, and more than 45 albums; his long partnership with pianist Emanuel Ax and collaborations with artists from Isaac Stern to Bobby McFerrin, Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer; commissions and premieres of works by American composers; the MIT hypercello (1991); the 1990s Bach suite films with choreographer Mark Morris, a Kabuki artist, a garden designer and others; the Piazzolla project, for which he studied a Rostropovich rehearsal tape and toured Buenos Aires tango clubs; and educational outreach in his touring. A reviewer-style comment notes his tone is silkier than some rivals'. CANONICAL SIGNIFICANCE SOURCE. Reference compilation drawn largely from interviews and promotional material, admiring; its passages on his childhood, family, surgery and personal life were not used.
- Silkroad, 'About' page (silkroad.org), read in full: the organisation's own account that Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998, convened musicians from the lands of the Silk Road to co-create new music from the question 'What happens when strangers meet?', and that it now runs as both a touring Grammy-winning ensemble and a nonprofit with educational partnerships, commissions of new music and social-impact programmes under artistic director Rhiannon Giddens. Organisation's self-description (promotional, SELF-SOURCE); used only to establish what the project is and when it began, never as sole support for a trait.
- Georgia Straight (Vancouver) profile of Yo-Yo Ma ahead of a Silk Road Ensemble concert (straight.com, c. 2010), read in full: his willingness to accompany non-classical performers and play across genres (with Bobby McFerrin, Bela Fleck and Jake Shimabukuro), the Silk Road Ensemble described as a loose collective of about 60 musicians, his account that he finds talented 'standard-bearers' of their traditions through connected people, commissions and creates works with them and learns their traditions, and his remark that a professional 'aspires toward the condition of the amateur'. Interview-based press profile; the writer's praise of his 'selflessness' is the journalist's own framing and the self-descriptions are his own. Remarks about political figures he has accompanied were not used.
- Midwest Film Journal, 'The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road' (6 July 2015), read in full: review of Morgan Neville's documentary describing the Silk Road Project as colleagues learning from one another across traditions over sixteen years (six albums, 33 nations), Ma shown as 'ready pupil rather than a protean titan', unguarded backstage moments, a performance in which his Bach Suite No. 1 prelude becomes the underscore for a Chinese-language ballad, and the critique, which the film lets stand, that the project's 'cultural tourism' is meant to monetise a wide audience. Film review by an outside writer built on a documentary the project cooperated in; admiring but names the commercialism objection.
- Alan Rich, 'The Slick Road Project', So I've Heard (13 November 2002), read in full: a veteran critic's review of a Silk Road Project concert at UCLA's Royce Hall, saying Ma plays Bach and Beethoven as well as anyone, that the project's program was 'a curiously unsatisfying' sampling of too much in too little time though with strong performances (Kayhan Kalhor, Sandeep Das, Wu Man, Khongorzul Ganbaatar), that he wishes Ma would play the Bach suites more often and dislikes the 'sexy videos' made around them, and that Ma sells out halls like no other cellist. COUNTER-VOICE (critical, 2002, one critic's blog-hosted review reprinted from a newspaper-style column).