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Yo-Yo Ma

Six Evolutions - Bach Cello Suites

Sony Classical

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Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, Prelude
Yo-Yo Ma - Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, Bourree I and II
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1 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #1 in G Maj, BWV 1007 - Prelude  
2 Allemande  
3 Courante  
4 Sarabande  
5 Menuets I & II  
6 Gigue  
7 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #2 in D Min, BWV 1008 - Prelude  
8 Allemande  
9 Courante  
10 Sarabande  
11 Menuets I & II  
12 Gigue  
13 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #3 in C Maj, BWV 1009 - Prelude  
14 Allemande  
15 Courante  
16 Sarabande  
17 Bourrees I & II  
18 Gigue  
19 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #4 in Eb Maj, BWV 1010 - Prelude  
20 Allemande  
21 Courante  
22 Sarabande  
23 Bourrees I & II  
24 Gigue  
25 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #5 in C Min, BWV 1011 - Prelude  
26 Allemande  
27 Courante  
28 Sarabande  
29 Gavottes I & II  
30 Gigue  
31 Bach: Unaccompanied Cello Suite #6 in D Maj, BWV 1012 - Prelude  
32 Allemande  
33 Courante  
34 Sarabande  
35 Gavottes I & II  
36 Gigue  
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YO-YO MA releases Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites. The new album from Sony Classical marks Ma's third and final recording of the works and celebrates his nearly six-decade-long relationship with the music.  Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites is available to stream and download now on all digital service providers and for purchase as a 3-LP 180-gram vinyl set.

As Ma's "constant musical companions" for almost 60 years, Bach's Cello Suites first entered the cellist's life at the age of four, when he learned the first measure of the Prélude to Suite No. 1 under his father's instruction.  His Grammy Award-winning first complete recording of the suites was made in his late twenties. His second, Inspired by Bach, was released in his early forties and recorded alongside a multi-genre, collaborative exploration of the works. Both previous recordings of the Cello Suites, also on Sony Classical, became landmarks in classical discography, as well as milestones in Ma's musical life.  Since then these works have been a through line in his life, guiding him through times of happiness as well as hardship, prompting Ma to ask, "What power does this music possess that even today, after three hundred years, it continues to help us navigate through troubled times'"

  • Yo-Yo Ma's 'Doorway' feat. Tunde Olaniran may have slipped through the cracks, but remains in NPR's headphones
    Posted At: December 30, 2021 12:00 AM
    As we near the year's end, NPR's #NowPlaying recommends songs that slipped through the cracks, but remain in our headphones. STEPHEN THOMPSON writes….Yo-Yo Ma and Tunde Olaniran are both omnivorous, multi-hyphenate musicians, but you wouldn't necessarily think to place them in the same song. Still, pairing the classical cellist with the Michigan iconoclast makes a fair bit of sense: Neither cares much for g...
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  • It's a difficult task to pick a favorite Yo-Yo Ma recording, but to celebrate his 66th birthday, CPR Classical takes a shot at it
    Posted At: October 4, 2021 12:00 AM

    Few names in music hold as much weight as Yo-Yo Ma: cellist, international superstar, humanitarian and beloved human. With a performance career of 60 years, he has brought life to scores and scores of music. From centuries-old traditional tunes to brand new concertos, Yo-Yo Ma is featured on 120 albums. It's a heartbreakingly difficult task to pick a favorite recording, but to celebrate Ma's 66th birthda...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma gets Bach to the Cello / LA WEEKLY
    Posted At: September 13, 2021 12:00 AM

    LA WEEKLY BRETT CALLWOOD writes.....Yo-Yo Ma is such a phenomenon that people who have never knowingly listened to a cello recital in their lives know who he is. 90 albums and 18 Grammys only tells a fraction of the story. He was included in Time‘s 2020 list of the 10o most influential people - a cellist! As well as performing classical music, he's worked with American bluegrass, traditional Ch...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma set to perform on floating stage at Prague Sounds festival / Radio Prague
    Posted At: August 6, 2021 12:00 AM

    Internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be performing on Prague's Vltava River this September, as part of the Prague Sounds festival which will blend a wide range of musicians and genres into five unique evening concerts. To find out more about what's in store, I spoke to festival programmer Guy Borg. "We are of course delighted to have Yo-Yo come to the festival. We actually have a l...
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  • Tanglewood is back this summer, with Beethoven and Yo-Yo Ma / The New York Times
    Posted At: April 8, 2021 12:00 AM

    The New York Times Zachary Woolfe writes.....Closed last year, the Boston Symphony's warm-weather home in the Berkshires will host an abbreviated six-week season. There won't be the traditional, grand closing-night performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with its stage full of singers. In fact, to reduce the risk of aerosol transmission of the coronavirus, there will be no vocal music at all at Ta...
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  • Relive James Taylor & Yo-Yo Ma covering 'Here Comes The Sun'
    Posted At: March 24, 2021 12:00 AM

    Live For Live Music's Tom Shackleford writes....Fans can now relive Yo-Yo Ma's 2008 cover performance of "Here Comes The Sun" alongside veteran singer-songwriter James Taylor in a new pro-shot video shared by the acclaimed cello player late last week. Video of the performance, which took place way back on March 7th, 2008, was shot on-site at Taylor's TheBarn home studio. The performance would end up ...
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  • Watch Peter Gabriel re-record 'Biko' with artists from around the world / RollingStone
    Posted At: February 12, 2021 12:00 AM

    RollingStone's ANDY GREENE writes......Peter Gabriel has re-recorded his 1980 protest classic "Biko" with help from 25 musicians from around the globe, including Beninese vocalist and activist Angélique Kidjo, Yo-Yo Ma, the Cape Town Ensemble, Sebastian Robertson, and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello. The video was produced by Sebastian Robertson and Mark Johnson as part of Playing fo...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma reflects on the emotions of the pandemic / New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: January 6, 2021 12:00 AM

    "We hope that for the many different kinds of people with different tastes and whatever that some of the music will just reach inside and just give a gentle caress." It's a simple intention, and one that is really necessary right now, according to cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He and pianist Kathryn Stott recently released a recording, Songs of Comfort and Hope. "In the middle of the summer, I was talking to...
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  • How music can be like touch during these socially distant times / Washington Post Q&A with Yo-Yo Ma
    Posted At: August 14, 2020 12:00 AM

    Since March, national arts reporter Geoff Edgers has been grounded by the novel coronavirus. So every Friday and many Tuesday afternoons, he hosts The Washington Post's first Instagram Live show from his barn in Concord, Mass. So far, he has interviewed, among others, comedian Sarah Cooper, magician Penn Jillette, director Paul Feig, musician Annie Lennox and talk show host Chelsea Handler. Recently, he ...
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  • IDAGIO welcomes Yo-Yo Ma to its global concert hall / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: July 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Empty concert halls and a dramatic drop-off in events: the corona crisis has pressed a pause button for the concert and opera business. But thanks to IDAGIO, classical music lovers can still enjoy unique musical experiences. Now, the leading classical music streaming service welcomes Yo-Yo Ma, the most renowned cellist of our time, to perform in its Global Concert Hall. On July 24 at 8:00 pm New York...
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  • Raffi enlists Yo-Yo Ma for new version of the popular children's song - 'Baby Beluga' / CBC
    Posted At: July 9, 2020 12:00 AM

    Canadian songwriter and children's entertainer Raffi is marking the 40th anniversary of his perennially popular "Baby Beluga" with a new version of the bouncy song about a little white whale. He has enlisted cellist Yo-Yo Ma to accompany him in a virtual performance. Pay special attention to the way Ma imitates whale song during the transition to Raffi's newly coined verse, written especiall...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma is trying to leave all the stress behind him / The New York Times
    Posted At: June 9, 2020 12:00 AM

    The renowned cellist, who has soothed us during the pandemic with "Songs of Comfort," also puts Fred Rogers, Pablo Casals and his Benoît Rolland bow on his list of cultural essentials. Yo-Yo Ma has long been the person we turn to when music can express what words cannot. So in March, as the coronavirus plunged the nation into crisis, Mr. Ma asked himself how he could be helpful. Then he did wha...
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  • What books are on Yo-Yo Ma's nightstand? / The New York Times
    Posted At: May 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    "For once, I'd like to ask the questions," says the renowned cellist, whose new ensemble album is "Not Our First Goat Rodeo." What books are on your nightstand? "The World That Made New Orleans," by Ned Sublette. "Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,'" the oral history of one of the last known African survivors of the Middle Passage, by Zora Neale Hurston. The memoirs of A...
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  • 'The Wexford Carol' from Yo-Yo Ma and Friends, Songs of Joy & Peace makes WGBH: 'A Very Celtic Christmas' holiday playlist
    Posted At: December 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Curated by WGBH: Boston 'A Celtic Sojourn's' Brian O'Donovan Explore classic Celtic holiday essentials from including; 'The Wexford Carol' featuring: Alison Krauss, from Yo-Yo Ma and Friends, Songs of Joy & Peace. Yo-Yo Ma brought together a remarkable group of friends to create a musical party inspired by the holiday season: Songs of Joy & Peace on Sony BMG Masterworks. This ...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma is in top form for Salonen Cello Concerto / LIMELIGHT
    Posted At: July 8, 2019 12:00 AM

    The Finnish conductor and composer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, has often been interested in the idea that music is the creative tension between its organic and mechanical elements. He was written that he thinks "musical expression is bodily expression, there is no abstract cerebral expression in my opinion. It all comes out of the body." Music for Salonen, therefore, is deeply and essentially physical; approachi...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma plays impromptu two and a half hour Bach concert under the Acropolis / Tornos News
    Posted At: July 2, 2019 12:00 AM

    World-famous musician Yo-Yo Ma spent three days in Athens, one to present his Bach Project at the Herod Atticus Odeon on Sunday and another two where he performed impromptu for the public in Athens and Piraeus, ANA reports. At the ancient Odeon, the American cellist of Chinese descent performed his beloved six Bach suites for cello for 2.5 hours straight in a relaxed manner under the Acropolis, with the ...
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  • Meryl Streep recites poetry while Yo-Yo Ma plays the cello / CLASSIC fM
    Posted At: July 1, 2019 12:00 AM

    Award-winning actress Meryl Streep recited poetry to an audience in China while Yo-Yo Ma played the cello – and it's everything we need to get us through the week. The Hollywood icon gave the reading in China – and it was accompanied by a stunning sonata performed by the virtuoso cellist. We don't deserve these two. The powerful performance took place back in 2011 and is currently do...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma plants tree and plucks cello in Unity Park / Chicago Tribune
    Posted At: June 21, 2019 12:00 AM

    As beads of sweat dripped down his forehead, Yo-Yo Ma, famed cellist extraordinaire, carefully lowered a magnolia sapling into the ground at Unity Park in North Lawndale. Using a wheelbarrow to pour dirt around the base, he packed down the earth with a shovel created by artist Pedro Reyes, who had forged it using repurposed weapons originally seized by the Chicago Police Department. "There's something ab...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma will perform with kids in unity park to open conversation about gun violence / Block Club Chicago
    Posted At: June 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    In 2018, world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma began a journey around the world to leverage the power of the arts to help tackle some of the issues facing 36 communities. This week, he takes on Chicago. Following a free concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Ma will embark on a Day of Action across the city. On Friday, Ma will perform at Unity Park, as part of a citywide...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma & Soledad O'Brien discuss building a better future through music / Salesforce
    Posted At: June 19, 2019 12:00 AM

    Join world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma as he discusses with Soledad O'Brien, Award-Winning Journalist and Entrepreneur, his enduring belief that culture has the power to create moments of shared understanding and is essential to imagining and building a better future. Through his music, Yo-Yo strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity. A true trailblazer! Wa...
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  • Music brings Yo-Yo Ma together with refugees / UNHCR
    Posted At: June 14, 2019 12:00 AM

    To perform alongside Yo-Yo Ma, the world-famous cellist, would be a unique opportunity for most musicians – but for Syrian refugee Basma Jabr, it is an amazing turn in her life as a refugee in Austria, where she arrived in 2014 and is now building a career as a singer. "Of course I am a bit nervous," she said the morning before, during practice at the home of fellow musician Marwan Abado, who plays...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma urges Dartmouth grads to use power wisely / NEW HAMPSHIRE Union Leader
    Posted At: June 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    Renowned musician Yo-Yo Ma reminded Dartmouth College students of the power they have, and the need to harness that power. "You will always have more power than you know. Never abuse this power; it is a gift," Ma said. "Use it with great care and intention." Ma, the Grammy award-winning cellist, was this year's commencement speaker, and he received an honorary degree from the school for his artistic...
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  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meets Yo-Yo Ma in Vienna during Day of Action / UN News
    Posted At: May 27, 2019 12:00 AM

    Like a well-tuned orchestra, successful modern societies have a balance of diversity and culture, that is a source of "enormous richness, not a threat" said the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, speaking alongside UN Messenger of Peace, acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the Austrian capital, Vienna. He was speaking against the backdrop of European Parliamentary elections in recent days, w...
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  • Ten reasons why you shouldn't miss Yo-Yo Ma's Athens Festival concert / tornosNews
    Posted At: May 22, 2019 12:00 AM

    Athens is but one of 36 cities in Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Project world tour. The internationally acclaimed cellist will perform The 6 Unaccompanied Cello Suites at the Odeon for a single spellbinding evening on 30 June, in his first ever appearance in Greece. Why is this concert one of the unmissable music events of the summer? Read here everything you should know about Yo-Yo Ma, and his rich body of work as an...
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  • Salonen Cello Concerto is most successful with Yo-Yo Ma, L.A. Phil / THE CLASSIC REVIEW
    Posted At: April 19, 2019 12:00 AM

    After a Piano Concerto and a Violin Concerto, it was only natural Esa Pekka-Salonen will write a full Cello Concerto, and one may dare say this is the most successful of the three. Like the other two concertos, Salonen enjoys a first-class soloist – the immaculate Yo-Yo Ma, together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on top form. This recording comes from the debut performance of the piece at Los An...
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  • Salonen Cello Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma & LA Phil, traverses territory that embraces Ives, Messiaen, Debussy, Barber / New Music Buff
    Posted At: April 17, 2019 12:00 AM

    Perhaps this is a stroke of marketing genius or maybe some luck is involved but this recording has success written all over it. Yo-Yo Ma is without a doubt one of the finest musicians of our time. The LA Philharmonic is a world class orchestra with a world class conductor at the helm. And though this is but the first encounter by this reviewer with Salonen's music this work suggests that his compositiona...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach on Laredo border crossing / npr - tpr
    Posted At: April 13, 2019 12:00 AM

    <img src="/interface/ytcircle.png" /></a>Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach In Shadow Of Border Crossing</div>">World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought his Bach Project to the sister cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, on Saturday. Laredo's "Day of Action" featured performances in both cities to celebrate the relationship between the two communities. Ma played the opening notes of J.S. Bach'...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma, headed to the border / CelebrityAccess ENCORE
    Posted At: April 11, 2019 12:00 AM

    Yo-Yo Ma is expected next weekend to head to the border between Texas and Mexico to soothe reported tensions between those who live on either side of the Rio Grande. With the media coverage of immigration and how to handle it at an all-time high, the famed cellist is hoping that a performance at Laredo's Gateway to the Americas International Bridge will highlight what unifies American and Mexican culture...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma brings 'Bach Project' to San Antonio & Laredo / San Antonio Express-News
    Posted At: April 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    Just under 3,000 people wil pack Trinity University's Laurie Auditorium on Friday for internationally renowned musician Yo-Yo Ma's sold out performance of Bach solo cello suites, but many, many more will get to experience the performance. That's because it will be simulcast at both the Mission Marquee Plaza, the community space on the former site of Mission Drive-In, and at Texas A&M International Un...
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  • 89.3KPCC: The Frame visits Yo-Yo Ma's recent Mexico City stop
    Posted At: April 5, 2019 12:00 AM

    The world-renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma has taken on one of the most ambitious musical endeavors in years. The multi-layered Bach Project includes performing the composer's six Cello Suites in one sitting, in 36 cities and six continents, and participating in cultural activities with local communities in each of those locales. The Frame contributor Betto Arcos got a chance to visit Yo-Yo Ma's recent st...
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  • The world premiere recording of Salonen's new cello concerto is a magical work / Planet Hugill
    Posted At: April 3, 2019 12:00 AM

    Esa-Pekka Salonen's Cello Concerto is a substantial work, in three movements it runs to around 35 minutes on this new recording from Sony Classical with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with soloist Yo-Yo Ma. A co-commission by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Barbican Centre and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, it was Salonen's...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma comes to Ann Arbor for culture, understanding and survival / The Michigan Daily
    Posted At: March 28, 2019 12:00 AM

    In the packed Hill Auditorium of about 3,500 students, staff and local Ann Arbor residents, Yo-Yo Ma walked out dressed in a black suit matched with a light pink tie. He looked to the crowd, glasses perched on the tip of his nose, standing adjacent to a $2.5 million dollar cello named "Petunia." At least he didn't leave it in a taxi this time, he joked. The world renowned cellist was not in Ann Arbor to ...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma to hold day of action at Laredo bridge, in hopes of uniting communities across the border / Laredo Morning Times
    Posted At: March 19, 2019 12:00 AM

    Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be holding a day of action and plans to play a concert in the middle of the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge in Laredo next month, in celebration of how culture unites communities across the border, Mr. Ma is currently traveling the world as part of his Bach Project, where he plans to perform all six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach in one sitting, in 36 cities. Wit...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma and Deborah Borda discuss 'citizen musicians' at Harvard Business School / The Harvard Crimson
    Posted At: March 15, 2019 12:00 AM

    Creating and performing music can seem far removed from efforts to promote social justice, but two prominent speakers urged an audience at Harvard Business School Wednesday to see them as intimately related pursuits. Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma '76 and Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic, in a conversation moderated by Harvard Business School Professors Rohit Deshpandé and ...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma set for Flint Voices: Culture, Community, and Resilience / Flint Side
    Posted At: February 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Grammy Award-winning cellist and activist Yo-Yo Ma is planning a Day of Action in Flint on Feb. 28 - hosting a local exhibit of the arts, meeting with residents and hosting a conversation with community leaders. The event - called "Flint Voices: Culture, Community, and Resilience" - includes more than 30 Flint-based organizations and partners exploring the power of culture to create lasting change in a c...
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  • Yo-Yo Ma performs impromptu for passers-by on Mumbai's Marine Drive / Storypick
    Posted At: January 25, 2019 12:00 AM

    Mumbai's Marine Drive, a blissful sunset, soothing sea waves, and a delightful company account for a perfect evening. To add to the bliss, soulful music matching up with the rhythm of the waves sounds to be beyond perfect! Accordingly, to treat Mumbaikar with some melodious treat, Grammy-winning cellist, Yo-Yo Ma performed an impromptu gig for them at the Marine Drive, recently. The renowned Chinese-...
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