Cellist Yo-Yo Ma shares his life lessons and words of wisdom against the soundtrack of Bach’s Cello Suites in this short film. 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of Ma’s first recording of the Bach Cello Suites in 1983 - he shares his personal history with the suites, including how his first recording followed a scoliosis operation at the age of 28.

Ma has recorded the suites twice after the initial recording, and he shares how the approaches to the works differed each time. Throughout his life, he has viewed Bach’s music through a different lens with each encounter. ’Bach has been my teacher all throughout my life,’ says Ma. ’Every stage, he’s taught me something new about something that I didn’t know before, but I can find resonance with.’

Watch: Yo-Yo Ma performs Bach in the Great Smoky Mountains

Read: ‘Everyone has to do something’: Yo-Yo Ma performs outside Russian embassy

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Best of Technique

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.

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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.

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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.

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