Cellist Yo-Yo Ma in conversation on the magic of music, nature, and the future

In this video, cellist Yo-Yo Ma speaks to  Zane Lowe over a cup of coffee in New York for Lowe’s  Apple Music 1 radio show, covering topics including classical music transcending genres, his admiration for Barbra Streisand, moving to the US as an immigrant, as well as how music can unite people through the hardest of times.

The conversation comes as Apple Music Classical recently launched in Japan, South Korea, and China. Ma explains the importance of spaces such as Apple Music Classical existing to continue passing down the gift of music from generation to generation.

Summing up his thoughts on the existence of music, Ma says, ’Music is just three things. It’s energy because it’s sound moves air molecules. And the air molecules hit your eardrum. And then your brain interprets what it is, right? So it’s sound, it’s energy, and it’s time. And music toys with time through that of regular and irregular. When you get irregular patterns, you’re toying with someone’s sense of time, right, and space. It takes you to a different consciousness level, state of mind.’

Photo credit: The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music 1

Playing

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Teaching

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.