Highly acclaimed for his ensemble playing, Ma regularly performs with a wide circle of colleagues.  Over the past seasons he has joined Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo for performances and Sony Classical recordings of the piano quartet repertoire, including Brahms, Fauré, Schumann and Beethoven.  Yo-Yo Ma's long-standing partnership with Emanuel Ax is one of the music world's most successful collaborations.  They regularly perform recitals together and have recorded the complete cello sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms as well as works by Britten, Chopin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Strauss.  During the 1995/96 season they celebrated the 20th anniversary of their partnership with a recital tour and a special concert in New York.

Yo-Yo Ma has recently finished working on a project of a different kind; making films of  Bach's Six Cello Suites that explore the relationship between Bach's music and other artistic disciplines.  The first of these featured choreography by Mark Morris, set to the Third Cello Suite, and was premiered at the 1995 Edinburgh Festival.  Subsequent films incorporate the work of the renowned Kabuki artist Tamasaburo Bando, the Italian architect Piranesi, Boston-based garden designer Julie Moir and the former Olympic ice-dancing champions Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean. The "Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach" series of films won the Golden Rose of Montreux award in 1998.

An exclusive Sony Classical recording artist, Yo-Yo Ma has won Grammy awards on numerous occasions.   Summer 1996 saw the release of Peter Lieberson's "King Geser" and Appalachia Waltz - an album of original Nashville music with country fiddle player Mark O'Connor and bassist Edgar Meyer which topped the US classical chart for a number of weeks.  In 1997 there were three major releases; the Mozart Piano Quartets in February with Ax, Stern and Laredo; a Piazzolla Tango Album in September, and the Bach Suites for Solo Cello in October.

Contemporary music, particularly by American composers, has for many years been an important part of  Ma's repertoire.  Previous seasons have seen him premiere works by Stephen Albert, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour, David Diamond, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Ezra Laderman, Peter Lieberson, Tod Machover, Christopher Rouse, Bright Scheng and John Williams.   Recent CD releases include the concertos of Kirchner, Rouse and Danielpour with the Philadelphia Orchestra/David Zinman.   Andre Previn's new work, set to words by Toni Morrison, with soprano Sylvia McNair and Previn as pianist was also released in 1997.

In early 1998 Yo-Yo Ma performed solo Bach in Cologne, Leipzig, Paris, Stockholm and London in addition to appearances in Berlin with Daniel Barenboim, Paris with Chen and later with Janowski, at the Salzburg Festival with Ashkenzay and at two BBC Proms in August. He will end 1998 with concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Blomstedt and will then be joined by Kathryn Stott for recitals in Lisbon, Madrid and Andorra. 1999 will see him return to Europe in April for a tour with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed by additional recitals with Kathryn Stott.
 
In Summer 1997 Yo-Yo Ma went to Hong Kong and China to premiere Tan Dun's Symphony 1997 (Heaven and Earth Mankind) specially composed for the hand-over of Hong Kong to China.

Alongside extensive performing and recording activities, Yo-Yo Ma devotes time each year to work with young musicians.  He seeks to include educational outreach activities in his regular touring schedule, through masterclasses and more informal interaction with students.

Born in Paris in 1955 of Chinese parents, Yo-Yo Ma began his cello studies with his father at age 4.  He later studied with Janos Scholz and in 1962 he began his studies with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School.  A graduate of Harvard University, from which he also received an honorary doctorate in 1991, he was also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 1978.  Ma and his wife, Jill, have two children, Nicholas and Emily.

He currently plays a Montagnana cello from Venice made in 1733 and the Davidoff Stradivarius made in 1712. 

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