GERMANY: RENOWNED CELLO PLAYER YO-YO MA ATTENDS THE ANNUAL SCHLESWIG- HOLSTEIN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Record ID: 391828

  • Title: GERMANY: RENOWNED CELLO PLAYER YO-YO MA ATTENDS THE ANNUAL SCHLESWIG- HOLSTEIN MUSIC FESTIVAL
  • Date: 18th August 2001
  • Summary: CU MA PLAYING
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FARGAU, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADONLD7HH46O4UH3HZ2WTDFDQL
  • Story Text: Renowned cello player Yo-Yo Ma is currently attending the annual Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in northern Germany where he is about to introduce his latest work, the "Silk Road Project."
    Ma, winner of ten Grammy Awards and also known for his solo cello performance in the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," is actively involved in promoting young talent with projects such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
    "I was really excited to be a part of a film. It's not something I do very often and its working with a much larger team of people than I'm usually doing, like today with a hundred people in the orchestra," said Ma after rehearsing with young musicians from 27 nations.
    "Playing with this orchestra at Schleswig-Holstein (Music Festival) is so fantastic, not because its just young people.
    But they have been living together for the last seven weeks and they have formed a partnership with each other that is so extraordinary," Ma said.
    Happening all over this northern state situated between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the festivals organisers each year choose from more than 1,000 applicants worldwide.
    Only the best young musicians under the age of 26 then spend the summer perfecting their skills with renowned conductors and musicians.
    The festivals headquarters are in the tiny and remote village of Fargau, just south of the Baltic Sea coast.
    According to the organisers, the remoteness creates an "atmosphere ideal for intense musical work."
    Born in Paris in 1955 to Chinese parents, Ma started playing cello at the age of four. The Harvard graduate later performed at such events as the handover ceremony of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
    Ma's current attendance at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival coincides with next weeks world premiere of his latest achievement, "Silk Road Project."
    The work of music will introduce a number of compositions and already existing pieces of composers from east and west, using western and eastern instruments commonly used in the countries along the Silk Road.
    During the first millennium before Christ up till the middle of the second millennium after Christ a wide network of sales routes called the Silk Road combined people and cultures from Asia and Europe.
    At its peak the Silk Road led from eastern China to Japan and through Central Asia to Persia, Turkey and Italy and was a melting pot for cultural innovation and the exchange of ideas.
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