A child prodigy who was playing Bach at four and performing for President
Kennedy by seven, Yo-Yo Ma – born October 7, 1955 in Paris France - is a master
cellist who has taken classical music to a mainstream audience. Honing his
skills at Harvard University, he was inspired by seeing Pablo Casals perform at
the Marlboro Music Festival in 1972 and was soon performing with the cream of
the world's orchestras; going on to become one of classical music's big stars
when he won the prestigious Avery Fischer Award in 1978. His renditions of
Brahms, Beethoven and Prokofiev brought great ...