Artist Recital Series: Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Kathryn Stott, piano

An Artist Recital Series performance by Yo-Yo Ma, cello and Kathryn Stott, piano.

Tickets can be ordered by calling Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at 1-800-371-0178 or online at www.oberlin.edu/arseries.

Program:

Igor Stravinsky: Suite Italienne

Three Pieces:
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Alma Brasileira (arr. Jorge Calandrelli)

Ástor Piazzolla: Oblivion (arr. Kyoko Yamamoto)

Camargo Guarnieri: Dansa Negra (arr. Jorge Calandrelli)

Manuel de Falla: 7 Canciones Populares Españolas, G. 40

-Intermission-

Olivier Messiaen: Louange a l'Eternite de Jesus from Quatour pour la fin du temps

Johannes Brahms: Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108

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Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences, and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music or exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, Mr. Ma strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination.

Yo-Yo Ma maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, his recital and chamber music activities, and his work with the Silk Road Project, for which he serves as Artistic Director. He draws inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators, each fueled by the artists’ interactions. Mr. Ma is also widely recognized for his strong commitment to educational programs that bring the world into the classroom and the classroom into the world. While touring, he takes time whenever possible to conduct master classes as well as more informal programs for students – musicians and non-musicians alike. He has also reached young audiences through appearances on “Arthur,” “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street.”

One of Mr. Ma’s goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication and as a vehicle for the migrations of ideas across a range of cultures throughout the world. Expanding upon this interest, in 1998, Mr. Ma established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Since the Project’s inception, more than 60 works have been commissioned specifically for the Silk Road Ensemble, which tours annually. At the invitation of the New York City Department of Education, in 2009, the Silk Road Project began a multi-year partnership with cultural and educational organizations to pilot Silk Road Connect, a multidisciplinary middle school engagement program designed to spark a lifelong passion for learning. In Silk Road Connect, visual and aural elements are used alongside the experiences of creating and collaborating, making direct connections to classroom work in subjects such as Social Studies, English Language Arts, the sciences and the arts.

Mr. Ma is an exclusive Sony Classical artist, and his discography of over 75 albums (including more than 15 Grammy Award winners) reflects his wide-ranging interests. He has made several successful recordings that defy categorization, among them “Hush” with Bobby McFerrin, “Appalachia Waltz” and “Appalachian Journey” with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer, and three albums with the Silk Road Ensemble. Mr. Ma’s recent recordings include Mendelssohn Trios with Emanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman; “Songs of Joy & Peace”. His new album, “The Goat Rodeo Sessions,” with Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stuart Duncan, is slated for release in October 2011. Across this full range of releases, Mr. Ma remains one of the best-selling recording artists in the classical field. All of his recent albums have quickly entered the Billboard chart of classical best sellers, remaining in the Top 15 for extended periods, often with as many as four titles simultaneously on the list. In fall 2009, Sony Classical released a box set of over 90 albums to commemorate Mr. Ma’s 30 years as a Sony recording artist.

Yo-Yo Ma was born in 1955 to Chinese parents living in Paris. He began to study the cello with his father at age four and soon came with his family to New York, where he spent most of his formative years. Later, his principal teacher was Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School. He sought out a traditional liberal arts education to expand upon his conservatory training, graduating from Harvard University in 1976.

Mr. Ma has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the Sonning Prize (2006), the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award (2008), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010). Mr. Ma serves as a UN Messenger of Peace and as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities. He has performed for eight American presidents, most recently at the invitation of President Obama on the occasion of the 56th Inaugural Ceremony.

Mr. Ma and his wife have two children. Mr. Ma plays two instruments, a 1733 Montagnana cello from Venice and the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius.

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Kathryn Stott is recognized internationally as one of Britain’s most versatile and imaginative musicians and among today's most engaging pianists. She is in demand for a wide variety of chamber music alliances, playing with some of the world’s leading instrumentalists, as well as appearing on major international concert platforms in recitals and concerto performances. She has also directed several distinctive concert series and festivals and has developed an extensive and exceptionally varied catalog of recordings.

Born in Lancashire, she studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music and was a prize-winner at the Leeds International Piano Competition 1978. In addition to her busy career as a performer worldwide, she is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

She enjoys associations with many orchestras and is a favored partner of many distinguished chamber musicians. Kathryn has been performing and recording with Yo-Yo Ma for nearly 30 years and future tours include visits to Europe, South America, the Far East and the USA.  She has developed shared musical interests with an eclectic group of performers and has a close involvement with many leading string quartets. A particular interest in contemporary music has led to several world premieres. She is a remarkable exponent of tango and other Latin dance music, reflected in her collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and leading South American musicians on the Grammy Award-winning Sony CD ‘Soul of the Tango’ and its successor ‘Obrigado Brazil’. In the recording studio she has created a large and eclectic body of work including concertos and solo repertoire; of particular note is her recording for Hyperion of the complete solo works by Fauré. Apart from her CDs with Yo-Yo Ma, she has also recorded with Truls Mørk, Christian Poltéra, the Hermitage Piano Trio, Guy Johnston and the Doric string quartet.

Kathryn Stott has been the artistic vision behind several major festivals and concert series. ‘Piano 2000’ and ‘Piano 2003’ ( Bridgewater Hall, Manchester) established her reputation as an astute programmer; and following the earlier ‘Fauré and the French Connection’ she was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government. In 2008 she was appointed Artistic Director of the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society and was Guest Artistic Director, 2010 and 2011, of the chamber festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena.  

A regular visitor to international festivals both as soloist and chamber musician, Kathryn has recently performed in Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Holland and Austria. She also enjoys teaming up with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth for concerts and recordings and they will be touring the UK and Norway in 2013 to coincide with the release of their CD for EMI.

Kathryn (Kathy) Stott has a daughter, Lucy, and lives with her partner, Huw, a landscape architect, in Hebden Bridge. In 2008 she celebrated her 50th birthday with 25 musician friends raising nearly $47,000 for HIV research and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy of whose fundraising committee she is a member. She also is on the Board of the Hallé Concerts Society. As her range of engagements and activities illustrates, Kathryn Stott’s diverse career remains truly international as she continues to captivate audiences worldwide with her eloquent musicianship and outgoing personality.