Open to Experiences: An Interview With Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is a world-famous cellist. Part of his fame may come from the fact that he has been playing the cello for most of his life — since he was four years old. He has spent his life bringing music to people around the world, trying to encourage connections across cultures through music. Ma has recorded more than 90 albums and won more than 18 Grammy awards. Recognizing that Ma is more than a gifted musician, President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 2011. Ma shared some of his thoughts about being an immigrant and how that made him open to new experiences.

Your father, a violinist, and your mother, a singer, moved from Nanjing, China, to Paris, France. What caused them to leave China?

My father left China as a young man of 25 in 1936 to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he received a doctorate in musicology. My mother moved to Paris in 1949 to study voice. Although my parents had met in China, it was not until they were in Paris that they became well acquainted and then married. My sister was born in Paris in 1951. I was born there four years later in 1955. Our father taught us music from the time we were very young. I began playing the cello at age four. My sister is a wonderful violinist who also became a pediatrician.

Your family immigrated to the United States when you were seven years old. Why did your family move again, and how did you experience that move?

Our immigration to the United States came about thanks to a chance encounter. My uncle was working as an engineer in Rochester, New York. In 1962, we made a trip to the United States mainly to see my uncle but also to visit other places as tourists. In New York City, my sister and I gave a concert. A French American lady, who had founded the K-6 independent Trent School, came to the concert. She was so impressed that she offered our father a position teaching music at her school. My father felt this would be a wonderful opportunity for our family and accepted. So, we came to the United States, and I enrolled in the Trent School as a second grader.

What are your most vivid memories as a child moving from Paris to New York City?

It was quite a shock to move from Paris to New York. For example, I was struck by the tall skyscrapers in New York. They made the sky seem smaller, more distant than in Paris. On the other hand, I was amazed that you could walk, even run, on the grass in Central Park. In Paris, you were not permitted to walk on the manicured park lawns.

I think my experience helped me begin my journey of being open to different ways of seeing and experiencing life. I started to become comfortable with being both an outsider and an insider in a place. I knew I could never be in two (or more) places at one time, and yet those different places were always a part of me. They shaped who I was and who I would become. Just think — I learned nursery rhymes and songs in French. Now, many years later, I read nursery rhymes to my grandchildren in English. But the two languages and the different countries they represent still mingle in my mind.

You have spoken about France and the United States. Do you still have relatives in China? Do you ever visit them?

I travel to China quite often to give concerts and workshops. Many of my Chinese relatives live in the city of Ningbo, not far from Shanghai. That is where our ancestral Ma gravesite is located. I have visited this gravesite with my relatives and lit incense to honor our ancestors. We have been able to trace my paternal ancestry back 18 generations to the year 1217. Many of my ancestors were involved in the fields of education or the military.

What kind of impact have immigrants had on music in the United States?

Immigrants have brought music from their original cultures that has influenced and helped create new musical styles in America. Recently, I have been thinking about the Czech composer Antonín Dvorák. He came to the United States in 1892 and stayed for three years, as director of the National Conservatory of Music in America in New York City. For me, Dvorák responded like an open-minded immigrant during his time in New York. He listened intently to many new musical sounds and quietly absorbed them. Then he interpreted what he heard in his own original compositions, such as in the New World Symphony. Isn’t it amazing that even though the New World Symphony was written by a Czech, it has come to represent not only the United States but also our global community? [U.S. astronaut] Neil Armstrong took a recording of the symphony on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the Moon!

Equally important to writing his own music, Dvorák taught his American students to listen carefully and absorb what they heard and to convey this open way of listening and responding to their own students. Students of Dvorák’s students helped create new American forms of music. I believe that famous American artists who are ultimately indebted to Dvorák include the jazz musician Duke Ellington, the composer Aaron Copland, and the composer and pianist George Gershwin.

What advice would you give to young immigrants and to young people who interact with immigrants?

First of all, I think it is important to remember that most Americans are descended from immigrants. Immigrants have the opportunity to integrate different cultures into their lives. I think it is vitally important that all of us try to listen carefully to everyone around us and try to enlarge our way of experiencing life. Recent immigrants may be able to do this more easily because they are still grappling with different cultures. But even if our families have been settled in the United States for a long time, we can still try to listen carefully and absorb new influences and be open to recent immigrants with whom we come in contact. My great hope is that everyone will think deeply about who they are, where they came from, and what they want to contribute to our remarkable country.