Yo-Yo Ma Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Thinking, Purpose, Pieces

  Interview with Elijah Ho, www.thecounterpoints.com. January 7, 2013.

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• I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Thinking, Joy, Way

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• Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Memories, Imagining Yourself, Brain

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• Good things happen when you meet strangers.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Stranger, Good Things, Happens

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• Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there's got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you're at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Fall, Together, Leap Of Faith

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• One of the things I love about music is live performance.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Things I Love, Music Is, Performances

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• I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Thinking, Roles, Pieces

  "Cellist Yo Yo Ma: His career and music". www.cnn.com. March 15, 2001.

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• You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Years, Answers, Phases

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• I don't always have a five-year plan. One thing you must do in life is keep your learning curve as high as possible.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Curves, Years, Planning

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• But an innovation, to grow organically from within, has to be based on an intact tradition, so our idea is to bring together musicians who represent all these traditions, in workshops, festivals, and concerts, to see how we can connect with each other in music.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Ideas, Innovation, Together

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• The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Understanding, Musician, Roles

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• I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Home, Views, Want

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• You must have a reason to be in the places to which you go, and you must do only things that you really care about.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Care, Reason

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• With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Years, Relax, Want

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• I think there are so many ways to become interested in music. I believe signs of sustained interest gives a sense of the right time. Music, if thought of as a language, would perhaps indicate that as early as possible is not so bad. I do believe that a really nurturing first teacher that makes the child love something is crucial.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Teacher, Children, Believe

  "Cellist Yo Yo Ma: His career and music". www.cnn.com. March 15, 2001.

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• I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Growing Up, Wish, World

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• I want to investigate different cultures, to see how their identities and values affect their music. It's one way I can get to know our world, at least to a certain depth.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Our World, Identity, Depth

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• My involvement in the political arena is to make sure there's a place for culture.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Political, Culture, Arena

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• Music has always been transnational; people pick up whatever interests them, and certainly a lot of classical music has absorbed influences from all over the world.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  People, World, Influence

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• Once something is memorable, it's living and you're using it. That to me is the foundation of a creative society.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Memorable, Creative, Foundation

  "A Redmoon Night to Remember" by Elysabeth Alfano, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 26, 2014.

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• Children, in a way, are constant learners. Certainly sponge-like. Absorbing everything without careful analysis, even though, at the same time, they are certainly capable of incredible insights.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Children, Analysis, Way

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• People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.'

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Mother, Thinking, People

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• Sound is ephemeral, fleeting, but some sort of a physical manifestation can help you hold on to it longer in time. I'm sure of this; I've always thought the sound that you make is just the tip of the iceberg, like the person that you see physically is just the tip of the iceberg as well.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Sound, Tip Of The Iceberg, Fleeting

  "The Big Interview: Yo-Yo Ma pays back his debt to Toronto", by Richard Ouzounian, www.thestar.com. May 25, 2012.

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• One is that you have to take time, lots of time, to let an idea grow from within. The second is that when you sign on to something, there will be issues of trust, deep trust, the way the members of a string quartet have to trust one another.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Ideas, Issues, Way

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• There's a part of me that's always charging ahead. I'm the curious kid, always going to the edge.

  Yo-Yo Ma

  Kids, Curious, Charging

  "Every day is a holiday for Yo-Yo Ma". Interview with Shanon Cook, www.cnn.com. November 12, 2008.

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