Music ultimately is one of the great ways that we humans have for coding internal life.

It's a glue that joins people together.

[ Applause ] Emanuel: He loves people.

He loves the stage.

He loves communicating.

I think he's the greatest cellist I've ever heard, just bar none.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Yo-Yo: I deeply believe the music will become Yo-Yo.

And whatever you're writing for Yo-Yo is going to become my beautiful music.

♪♪ He's entirely consistent and you never know what's going to be next.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] Now here is a cultural image for you to ponder as you listen.

A 7-year-old Chinese cellist playing old French music for his new American compatriots.

Welcome, Yo-Yo Ma and Yeou-Cheng Ma.

[ Applause ] Yo-Yo: I think I was around 6 or 7 years old, and we got a call to go do something in Washington.

And this was the first big fundraiser for what is now the Kennedy Center.

[ Applause ] As a child, I was probably pretty un-self-conscious.

And it's that part that you want to treasure as you grow up.

♪♪ ♪♪ As you go on further in life, you actually want to recapture that and to realize that, in fact, the most important thing that you can do on is, in fact, to really be there in the moment and to share the joy of whatever you're doing.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Later on, I got more scared.

Of course, you know, the usual hierarchy of people judging you and whatever.

And now I think I'm back to the former version.

I really enjoy being on stage.

♪♪ If music has anything to do with anything, it has a lot to do with feelings.

It would take me forever to learn somebody else's way of doing things.

That forever becomes shorter if there's someone that can actually help me along the way.

♪♪ I met Isaac Stern, or rather, he met me when I was about 5 years old in Paris.

And when we moved to America, I was about 9 years old.

I played for him again, and he introduced me to my cello teacher, Leonard Rose, who was my great teacher and mentor.

When I was about 16 years old, there was a series of concerts -- Isaac Stern and Friends.

For a young person to be tapped on the shoulder by Isaac Stern, by Leonard Rose and say, "Come join us.

We're going to play some concerts at Carnegie Hall."

Carnegie Hall?

Playing with you guys.

And this is what makes the profession work, is that you give somebody a chance, maybe before they're quite ready, and you show them what the value system is about.

♪♪ You know what... ♪♪ That somehow there's -- it's not exactly set.

It's not -- I mean, two points that sound like it.

Man: I agree with you completely.

We're giving it away... Let's practice that.

♪♪ What Isaac Stern did, I think influenced me through all -- throughout all my life.

This was a man who dreamt big dreams.

And he dared other people to dream big dreams with him.

And I think that's very much part of his legacy.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I used to work for his teacher, for Leonard Rose.

I used to play for cello lessons and go hour after hour with -- And so Mr. Rose would tell me endlessly about this remarkable talent, Yo-Yo Ma.

We actually have just celebrated our duo partnership 25 years, a quarter of a century.

I'm an old guy, a very old guy.

And what's so neat about it is that the very thing that brought us together in the beginning, which is to say, "You know what?

Let's really think about forming a partnership where we work together, where we are actually equal."

♪♪ Manny has a great sense of humor.

So no matter where we go, he always will find the humor in the situation, which is, of course, fabulous.

I think that works.

I know it's not kosher, but after all, Beethoven wasn't.

[ Laughter ] We're not discussing salami here, so.

You're really in a pickle now.

Thank you.

Okay.

Yo-Yo: And throughout the 25 years, I think what we've discovered is that we're like the original odd couple.

We spent so much time together.

We know all of our individual quirks and whatever, but we've also learned at the same time how to make the other person look good.

♪♪ Do you feel that he's really being very intimate with you, the listener?

He's opening up his feelings.

He's not -- There's no wall.

Yo-Yo: We actually add to what the other person, so there's a complimentary thing.

And since we don't play together all the time, what we discover on our own, we can actually bring back to the duo and say, "Guess what?

I discovered this.

Let's try this."

♪♪ ♪♪ I'm usually extremely nervous when I play.

I'm rarely nervous when I'm on stage with Yo-Yo.

He just loves being there.

and he includes his colleagues in that, I think.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I met Bobby -- when -- at Tanglewood.

Right here, when we're all here together to celebrate Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday.

So I'm not too sure what I want there yet.

So let me think here.

Uh-huh.

Except you want the last note to go to this note, just as the cello does -- I mean, the bass and the cello down there do it.

You see what I mean?

In other words, that is doing the same thing.

Right, right, right.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

Get it?

Yeah, okay.

So it's one.

[ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ I see.

♪♪ [ All vocalizing ] ♪♪ I see.

I understand, I understand.

♪♪ Is this very different from trying to get him to understand why, you know, he felt that a diminuendo went here and what this was all about?

I mean, because like Charles, I've said, you know, you can put notes on paper and that's one thing.

But then getting the notes to sing.

[ Vocalizing ] You know, that moment... ♪ Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da ♪ I mean, you know, it should be, like, it should... Yo-Yo: The great thing about working with Bobby is that he will incorporate anything that happens into the thing that we're supposedly doing on stage.

It's all fine, and that's really wonderful.

♪♪ Bobby says, "Look, you know, you just have to remember one thing -- to not be self-conscious was to not judge myself when you're on stage.

Everything was okay.'

That actually changed my life.

♪ Hush, little baby, don't say a word ♪ ♪ Papa gonna buy you a mockingbird ♪ ♪ If that mockingbird won't sing ♪ ♪ Papa gonna buy you a diamond ring ♪ ♪ And if that diamond ring turns brass ♪ ♪ Papa gonna buy you a looking glass ♪ ♪ And if that looking glass should break ♪ ♪ Papa gonna buy you a chocolate cake ♪ Yo-Yo: All you have to do to get on stage is to just remember that and be yourself.

And that was perhaps the biggest lesson -- performing lesson of my life.

[ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Vocalizing continues ] ♪♪ [ Applause ] Yo-Yo: When you're dealing with sort of super events, a big celebration like Dvorák's anniversary in Prague, you actually have to expand yourself more in the Bobby McFerrin style.

You've got one shot at doing something fabulous.

Let's invite all of that in.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ When I'm performing, this is the moment where I've got to tell you all this stuff.

You know, vocabulary may not be good, but I'll find the words within whatever I know to tell you.

♪♪ ♪♪ The most important thing about performing is to make magic, to make a special moment in time.

The whole process to me is never about proving something, but it's about sharing something.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Yo, Yo-Yo Ma, ma man.

Phew, that is hard to say.

When I was asked to do a number of things on television for "Mister Rogers'," for "Sesame Street."

I'm most proud of some of that work.

A fiddle is a violin.

You play the violin, and this is a cello.

Ohh.

And a cello, you sit down to play it.

I'm very proud that I knew Elmo before he became a superstar.

♪♪ Elmo was a budding violinist.

Well, budding is maybe a little strong, but he was playing a scale and he was going through, you know... ♪ Da-da-da ♪ And on the seventh note, he couldn't quite get there.

♪♪ [ Breathes heavily ] You're supposed to breathe like this.

[ Breathes heavily ] Let's do another one.

Another one.

Let's go.

♪♪ [ Gasps ] [ Hands clap ] Bravo!

That's terrific, Elmo.

Wonderful.

-I helped him through that.

Thank you, Big Bird.

We will perform for you The Beethoven Quartet for two honkers, dinger, and cello.

If you can actually enter into the world of a child, it's really their world, and that's forever.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Bell dings ] [ Bell dings ] ♪♪ [ Bell dings ] ♪♪ [ Bell dings ] [ Applause ] ♪♪ Uh-huh.

Does that sound like a fire truck?

Yeah.

I think that's pretty good.

Do you ever help your dad play the cello?

Yeah.

Do you?

Try something?

We're going to try something.

I'll do the bow.

Okay, you do the bow.

Okay.

All right, let's try.

Okay, now say, "One, two..." Ready, go.

All right.

Yo-Yo: The pleasure of working with young people was brought immediately to life having children, because you see the unbelievable excitement and curiosity that kids have.

Would you and your dad play something together for me?

Yeah.

What?

[ Indistinct ] Oh, okay.

I'll just sit right here and watch both of you.

Okay, Nicholas, now, I haven't done this on the cello before, so you just give me an out.

One, two, go.

Okay.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Very, very nice.

You could see it in their eyes.

You could see it in all the reactions.

And that's such, such an amazing thing to be part of.

♪♪ I think one of the great adventures in terms of dealing and talking to younger people and said they've got interesting thoughts.

And most of the time I find myself in a dialog inspired by what they're saying.

It forces me to kind of look at things again and to say, "Okay, well, you've got a good point," and we both get something out of it.

♪♪ Maybe one of the things that we can do is find maybe more tension between, "If I'm dragging, then you should push me."

Do you know what I mean?

I think you're being too nice to me.

You're saying, "Well, you know, this is the soloist --" You're Yo-Yo Ma.

[ Laughter ] That's exactly what you shouldn't do, because, you know, if I'm Yo-Yo Ma and I'm screwing up, then you should say, "You know, hey, get your, you know...whatever --" [ Laughter ] Try playing beginning of the the prelude of the second suite and try breathing out before you play.

Would you like to -- just, I mean, I just want to see whether it works.

I want you to blow all the breath out, like, completely until you turn blue in the face.

The first thing that happens when someone's nervous, and this happens in the office, too, their shoulders go up, right?

You get tight here, and -- and of course, when you're tight physically, how can you be expansive?

If you're tense, you can't be receptive.

♪♪ Yo-Yo: Still blow out as much as you can.

♪♪ Good.

Okay.

Now, does that make any difference to you?

I breathe out very often when I play, because, like, I might just deliberately go... [ Exhales deeply ] The idea of music, it's not just storytelling, but it's about breathing, it means that when you breathe together with somebody, it means that you're actually in sync with them.

And this is as true with people that you're working with on stage as well as with an audience.

If you're breathing together, suddenly some things start to happen.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I remember so many years ago he told me about this idea of working with a Middle Eastern orchestra and figuring out if that will help with the tensions that are constantly going on there.

And I must have heard him talk about this seven, eight, nine years ago, and lo and behold, last year there he was with Daniel Barenboim in Weimar doing exactly this.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I asked him to come, because he's one of the greatest musicians, and... [ Laughter ] ...and also because I thought humanly, he is somebody that really will not only feel, but understand what this is about.

Recently, I worked on a project with kids from Egypt, from Syria, from Israel, from Lebanon, from Palestine, from Jordan.

♪♪ It was so exciting, because everybody there wanted to play music.

That was the common language.

That was the common goal.

That was the common desire.

♪♪ ♪♪ I think he believes very, very strongly that music is a way to reach everyone.

And I think he's, in a sense, dedicated his life to that.

♪♪ ♪♪ Yo-Yo: When you tap people's energies and focus them towards a singular purpose of creating something, that kind of energy is overwhelmingly strong and positive.

And I hope that's what was actually achieved.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra is a bunch of wonderful musicians that come from many different countries -- France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Holland, playing music and instruments that are in the older styles.

And why do they come together?

Because they love working with Ton Koopman, who is a great musician, who plays the organ, plays the harpsichord, conducts, and knows everything there is to know about Bach.

♪♪ Ton: Yo-Yo Ma asked me some years ago about an idea to make a project, "Can we make something which is joyful to do, which is beautiful to do, which is emotional to do, and which makes sense on a CD, and as well to open the world of Bach for a broader audience?"

♪♪ It's, of course, very hard to imagine what the original sound was and how to take your ears and mind back to the 1700s and 1600s.

And what they do is play older instruments that didn't go through the technological innovations.

You get a concept of what the sound limits were at that time, and within the sound limits, you can create a very special world.

And there's an interesting thing that's missing.

Usually you associate a cello with a guy that plays an instrument with an endpin.

What I do now is I actually play... ♪♪ ...with the cello between my legs, and literally I have to hold it for hours on end.

Instead of steel strings, we'll put on gut strings.

The bridge is thicker.

If you look at this bow here, you know, this has a much larger curve than bows that you usually see that people play on today.

Again, this is a baroque bow -- less power, less -- but much more possibilities in articulation.

♪♪ Working with people that are just at ease with themselves, they believe in what they're doing, and it's a shared kind of work that is, to me, wonderful to be part of.

♪♪ Thinking about the fiddling tradition, I always knew that that existed somewhere.

♪♪ This is unbroken line of music that was passed on orally from parent to child that's taken place over the last couple of hundred years.

That was new information for me, and to see it in the living embodiment of both Mark and Edgar was very, very exciting.

♪♪ ♪♪ There are kind of ground rules as to how people play together.

And coming more from classical music, some of those ground rules are not as familiar to Yo-Yo.

♪♪ Mark: Working with Yo-Yo has been wonderful for me.

I can feel the different pulses a lot better rather than just a straight pulse like in folk music or jazz.

And these things I was struggling with when we first got together.

So it's like I feel like another kind of musician, a brand-new musician.

♪♪ Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer are very special musicians.

I was just so struck by the individualness of what they did.

I had never heard anything like that before.

♪♪ Man: This is one of those things that was like a dream match.

Together we really worked out arrangements of old fiddle tunes and some new ones in a traditional style.

And we're creating parts for Yo-Yo to be able to fit right in the middle of all this.

♪♪ Yo-Yo: "Appalachia Waltz" was only written a couple of years ago, and we were, of course, tremendously moved when we heard the first version of it.

Mark had written it, and Edgar made the the arrangement for it for violin, bass.

and cello.

And I think it's both old and new music.

And it really does -- it touches a very quiet spot in people.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ I've always loved Piazzolla's music, but I didn't know much about it.

I went to Argentina, and in Buenos Aires, went to a lot of tango bars, met many of the musicians that worked with Piazzolla.

And it was there that the music caught fire in my heart.

♪♪ Well, the music is a kind of fusion of the old tango, the pre-Piazzolla.

With Piazzolla's experience in New York, he came as a teenager and heard a lot of jazz, and then he went to Europe to study with Nadia Boulanger, who really taught him about Stravinsky, Bartók.

So what came out is a new kind of music.

♪♪ He just developed his own way of writing.

And of course, people -- it's more than Argentinian music.

It's music that jazz musicians claim as their own, classical musicians claim as their own.

Once it hits you, it just -- it just stays.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ This project, "Inspired by Bach", music was the common thread.

The six cello suites by Bach, by any account, is really special music.

And I thought, if it's such a treasure, why not share it with as many people as possible?

I think of the suites in a certain way, but what would somebody else who works in a slightly different medium, what would they think of it if they made it their own?

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Mark Morris Dance Company, Mark Morris the choreographer and dancer -- amazing group of people.

Dum, bum, bum.

♪♪ ♪ Dee-dum-bum, dee-dum ♪ Right, good.

Okay, one more time, you guys.

That's right.

He proposed these unaccompanied cello suites of Bach and asked if I would be interested in choreographing one of them.

He said, "No, I don't want to do this."

And I was so scared of approaching him, because he's very, you know, very extroverted.

♪♪ In thinking about it and talking a little bit, and I don't know, coming to terms with that, I chose the third suite and then everything was fine.

It was all easy from there.

♪♪ ♪ Dum-dum-dun ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Dee-da-bum-ba-da-dum-dum ♪ ♪ Dum-dum-dum ♪ ♪ Dee-dum-dum-dum ♪ And really make this the forward and back thing more -- it doesn't even have to travel as much as it has to lean so it's really 3D.

All right, so it's more Doctor Tung.

[ Laughter ] People who so believe in what they do is so totally committed to it that I used to think to myself that within that world, it's a utopia, and utopias don't usually exist.

♪♪ Morris: Did you break a string?

Yeah, sorry.

We broke a string -- or he broke a string.

Yo-Yo broke a string.

He's very mouthy.

He tells you exactly what he says.

Oh, no, I can't deal with this.

I'm not saying we're alike, but we share certain things like that.

I want -- I want it about me, and he wants it about them.

So that makes it perfect for us to work together and also makes it impossible for me to get him worked up.

Is that all right?

Is that a crime against art to do that?

I've had it.

Okay.

I mean, for me to request that, of course.

Okay.

I'm your slave.

I'll do anything you want.

Anything... Mark -- I won't do anything...

Okay.

Sorry, but there are limits.

Let's try it the real time.

One and two and three.

♪ Duh-duh-duh, dum-dee ♪ All right.

That's not the thing to say, right?

It could be.

[ Laughter ] I love how everybody calls him Yo-Yo Ma like it's one word.

You know, it's like Coca-Cola or Kleenex or something like that.

They're not tissues or soda, cola, you know, or cellist, you know, it's like Kleenex.

Q-Tip, Yo-Yo Ma.

♪ Midnight out in the... ♪ Sorry.

You know, the beginning of the suite goes.

♪ Da-da-da-da-da-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-da-da ♪ And his nightmare was that all of his dancers were standing on top of some stairway and they actually fell down.

And of course, that's the worst thing that could happen to a dancer.

And of course, that was the beginning of his choreography.

I've worked with Yo-Yo many times in different situations, and a very good thing about him is that he doesn't play by rote.

I mean, he plays by memory.

He does the thing that great performers all do, all have in common, dancers and singers and actors, where it seems like it's improvised.

Bach does so many amazing permutations of beats and rhythms and counts and that -- what Mark did, that he not only understood all of those permutations within the piece, he actually added to them.

It's not just like a little filigree accompaniment to it, but he's actually part of the architecture of the music.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ 1997 was the year that Hong Kong reverted from British rule back to Chinese rule.

I was approached by some people to say, "Can you think of a way to -- a musical way to acknowledge that moment?"

Man: And here they are -- Tan Dun and Yo-Yo Ma.

[ Applause ] I loved Tan Dun's music, but I didn't really know him.

So we approached him and said, "You know, would you like to actually think of doing that?"

And he got it instantaneously, and he said, "Yes, I can imagine this is going to be a symphony of heaven, Earth, and mankind," which is actually a Buddhist concept.

And the result is "Symphony in 1997".

You may be wondering why you're all here.

What I'd like to talk to you a little bit about was maybe the genesis of this whole project.

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends were talking about the upcoming event.

[ Indistinct chatter ] ...bridge...the witness of history.

♪♪ It's like an epic.

It really will carry you through a whole journey that's longer than 150 years.

That's, you know, thousands and thousands of years and without a political agenda, but just as a statement from one person to another.

♪♪ Tan is someone who actually lives in about three or four different worlds, you know, pre-Cultural Revolution in China, during the Cultural Revolution.

As he says, "Planting rice then went back to school at a conservatory in China, then came to America."

All of that is happening in a very fertile mind and with great imagination.

♪♪ Yo-Yo himself, his cello is just a bridge.

His cello is not cello, it's a bridge to reach anywhere.

It's linked the whole world as a one.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪ Working with Tan Dun and Ang Lee on this film was so great, because I don't do that very often, and it was an opportunity to work in a much -- with a much bigger team than I'm used to working.

And I had to somehow find the fine line of what they each needed.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ When we worked together, Ang Lee finally talked to me after the first recording session, and he said, "I cannot believe this is true, this guy, his cello, it's no longer just a cello, and he is no longer a person just living in the present time anymore."

I said, "Well, you know, that's 'Crouching Tiger'."

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Yo-Yo: In the 25 years I've been traveling, sort of like a modern-day troubadour.

I've had the idea of being able to come in and out of cultures, and I've discovered there are actually many different classical musics.

And so the Silk Road Project tries to bring these people together, and you could see it in the instruments that we actually seen along the Silk Road.

And they're practiced still by fabulous musicians who are virtuosos in their right.

And the question is, can we talk together?

♪♪ You're all in really great shape with this, particularly Joel.

We're close.

I would like to hear.

Are we going to start with "The Silk Road" or "Capriccio"?

I think we're going to do the Silk Road first.

♪♪ Just on the instrumental point of view, let's trace that, let's connect the dots, and go to about 1500.

Suddenly, all the instruments, the traditional instruments in the world, Persian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, whatever, you see all the instruments where you play in the same way, can actually connect the sounds and you actually see that, you know, the lute and the oud and the pipa are all the same family.

♪♪ I do as much work in the second piece as you do in the first piece, which is basically stay out of the way.

[ Laughter ] Oh.

[ Laughter ] Sorry.

We're just a bunch of [Indistinct] you know?

I'm so, so ashamed.

Man: 130, "Silk Road."

♪♪ ♪♪ I'm not brave.

I'm actually pretty scared a lot of the time, but I must like being scared, because I keep doing things that scares me.

♪♪ ♪♪ And so I don't think that I'm being brave.

I'm just trying to do what I think is needed from everything that I've learned.

There's a lot of work to be done.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] There is a real case for cloning -- that's one person I would clone -- 10 Yo-Yo Ma's.

And I think the music world would be a happy place.

[ Applause ] [ Applause continues ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪