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Yo-Yo Ma – The Making of Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites
Yo-Yo Ma – Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prélude (Official Video)
Yo-Yo Ma – Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, Bourrée I and II
Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott – Lullaby (Brahms)
Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major – Movement I (excerpt)
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Photo by Brantley Gutierrez
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Photo by Brantley Gutierrez
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Photo by Austin Mann
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“Even at Red Rocks, a show business landmark where spectacle is an everyday occurrence, an appearance by classical musician Yo-Yo Ma was an extraordinary event.

Picture it — if you weren’t one of the 9,000 people who witnessed the concert live Wednesday evening — one man, one cello, two hours and 15 minutes of Bach. No light show, none of those electric guitar riffs or drum solos that the rock ‘n’ roll sanctuary is known for, a hushed crowd. Historic.

Ma played all six of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites with barely time to breath in between. It was a music marathon, certainly for the audience, who even at classical events is never asked to sit still for so long without an intermission. And certainly for the 62-year-old cellist, craftily coordinating fingers and bow over four thin strings, churning out hundreds of thousands of notes, all from memory.

It sounds superhuman, but it was just the opposite. It was fully human, perfect and imperfect at the same time, easy and difficult, marked by attempt and reward. This is Ma’s skill. He doesn’t make his music something to marvel at. He makes it a gift. Created for you himself.”

The Denver Post

“I am convinced, with every listen, that his forays into the outer limits of the classical repertory (and beyond) continue to refine what is at once his greatest and rarest gift, one recognized long ago by his peers at Juilliard: transcendence.”

San Francisco Classical Voice

Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works for cello, bringing us together to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, Yo-Yo seeks to foster connections that reinforce our humanity.

Yo-Yo and his creative team at Sound Postings collaborate with partners around the globe to develop and produce initiatives that advocate for a world guided by humanity, curiosity, and connection. Their recent projects include a six-continent tour of Bach’s cello suites exploring how culture strengthens communities today, and Our Common Nature, a journey celebrating the ways that culture can reconnect us to the natural world. Both endeavors reflect Yo-Yo’s lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to ask how music can help us imagine and build a better future.

Yo-Yo was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to learn cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his studies at The Juilliard School before pursuing a liberal arts education at Harvard.

He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the Birgit Nilsson Prize (2022). Among other roles, Yo-Yo is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, a member of the board of Nia Tero, an organization supporting the role and influence of Indigenous Peoples, and the founder of the global music collective Silkroad. He has performed for ten American presidents.

His discography of more than 120 albums (including 20 Grammy winners) ranges from iconic interpretations of the Western classical canon to recordings that defy categorization, such as “Hush” with Bobby McFerrin and the “Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. Yo-Yo’s recent releases include “Six Evolutions,” his third recording of Bach’s cello suites; “Merci” with pianist Kathryn Stott; and “Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ and Leonore Overture No. 3,” the fifth in a series of Beethoven recordings with pianist Emanuel Ax and violinist Leonidas Kavakos.

Yo-Yo and his wife have two children. He plays the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius, a 1733 Montagnana from Venice, and modern instruments made by Peter and Wendy Moes.

2026-2027