“Yo-Yo Ma has been on stage from an early age, turning out some 90 albums and performing for eight presidents. At 60, the classical music star is taking a step back to reflect on life,” writes Jeffrey Brown on Monday (10/19) at PBS’s website. “On his new album, ‘Songs from the Arc of Life,’ he and a longtime collaborator [pianist Kathryn Stott] use the music of cherished composers to create a soundtrack of change, love and loss.” Says Ma, “I never chose to go into music, because that’s just what I did…. It takes a lot of focus. It takes those 10,000 hours to do something, but it’s like, how does it fit in within the context of living? … I have also spent quite a lot of time thinking … what can I do between 60 and 70 that may be useful? … I get more and more pleasure seeing other people doing things and succeeding. And I don’t feel like I have to do this and that in order to prove something.” Included is video performance footage from Ma’s October 19 appearance on PBS’s NewsHour program.
Posted October 21, 2015
