Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" 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
Music
Think
Alive
Related Quotes:
" There are limits to how much sound a cello can make. That's part of the framing of acoustical instruments. Finding what those limits might be, and then trying to suggest perhaps even the illusion of going beyond is part of that kind of effort. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Kind
Illusion
Finding
" I love grocery shopping when I'm home. That's what makes me feel totally normal. I love both the idea of home as in being with my family and friends, and also the idea of exploration. I think those two are probably my great interests. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Think
Me
Family
" 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
Time
Teacher
Music
" I think that peace is, in many ways, a precondition of joy. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Think
Ways
Peace
" You know, you can have someone who's the very best at something, but if there's not that kind of chemistry, collaborating is not going to amount to anything. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Chemistry
Know
Someone
" Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks. "
Yo-Yo Ma
You
Creativity
Great
" I realized late in life that my twin passions are music and people. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Twin
People
Music
" My job as a performer is to make sure that whatever happens in a performance lives in somebody else, that it's memorable... If you forget tomorrow what you heard yesterday, there's really not much point in you having been there - or me, for that matter. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Performance
Job
Me
" One of the things I love about music is live performance. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Music
Live
Things
" A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself. It's sort of like a prism, which you can see from each facet a single totality. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Always
Music
See
" We may be coming to a new golden age of instrument making. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Age
Coming
Golden
" Mastering music is more than learning technical skills. Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will be just a few minutes. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Quality
Practice
Music
" The thing that I've always been slightly frustrated with, was that the idea of a CD is kind of confined to a material possession that you can put on a shelf. And the idea of music, for me, is always about both the communication and the sharing of content. And so the interactive part is missing. "
Yo-Yo Ma
You
Music
Communication
" What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do. "
Yo-Yo Ma
People
Music
Great
" As a musician I'm kind of nomadic, Waldo-like. I show up in different places, and I'm witness to unbelievable things. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Show
Different
Things
" People will ask, 'Are you famous?' And I always answer, 'My mother thinks so.' "
Yo-Yo Ma
Mother
You
People
" 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
Connections
Memory
Brain
" The tango is really a combination of many cultures, though it eventually became the national music of Argentina. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Though
Music
Argentina
" I think one of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Think
Never
Learning
" I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Head
World
Studying
" When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Good
Feeling
Balance
" I think anybody who goes away finds you appreciate home more when you return. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Appreciate
You
Think
" 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
Grow
Deep
Time
" 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
Innovation
Musicians
Together
" You go through phases. You have to reinvent reasons for playing, and one year's answer might not do for another. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Answer
You
Year
" Good things happen when you meet strangers. "
Yo-Yo Ma
Good Things
Good
You
" 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
Everything
Children
Time
" 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
Way
Content
Learning
" 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
Live
Music
Down
" 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
Me
Society
You