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Artist Ma:
"Now winter is here"
Photo: Adrián Monroy / Getty Images
In the beginning the waves lash and the wind rustles.
The first seconds of the "Songs of Comfort and Hope" sound like the opposite of the title.
As if listening to the album were in the middle of a storm.
But over time, very gently, Yo-Yo Mas Cello takes the place of the storm.
"A musician's job," says Yo-Yo Ma, "is to respond to needs."
65-year-old Ma, one of the most famous cellists in the world, is sitting in his home office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, smiling into the computer camera and telling something that has rarely been heard recently: that he is jet lagged.
Ma has just returned from Taiwan, which has fewer Covid-19 cases than the White House, he jokes.
He played live there in front of many people and then went into quarantine.
"Surreal."
Ma is not only famous for his game, but also for his commitment and complexity.
He has 19 Grammys and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest awards in the USA.
He learned the baroque style of playing, gave Johann Sebastian Bach to more than 17,000 people in the Hollywood Bowl, played with jazz, reggae or bluegrass musicians and in the Silk Road Ensemble he founded with musicians from all over the world World.
"Learning a new piece," he once said, "is like moving from one place to another."
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