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Yo-Yo Ma was born in France cellist, virtuoso, orchestral composer ancestry Chinese, and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

He is one of the most famous cellists of modern times. [4] Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, China and the parents had a musical education. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao Tsiun-Ma, was a violinist and music teacher. His family moved to New York when he was five years old. At a very young age, Ma began studying violin and then viola, before finding his true calling, taking up the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but compromised and took cello time.

Ascending Bird" is an arrangement of a traditional Persian folk melody by Silk Road Ensemble members Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei.

The musical traditions of the Arabic world are fused with jazz improvisation and European classical techniques by Lebanese-born oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil.

Welcome to Yo-Yo's Playhouse" When you're lucky enough to have cellist Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble, some of the world's premiere instrumentalists and composers, gather for an afternoon of offstage music making, you've got to think long and hard about where to put them.

We had so much fun taping cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble's Field Recording, we couldn't stop at just one selection, so we recorded the group's four talented percussionists in a deep groove.

For "Silent City," the kamancheh (Persian spike fiddle), Western strings and percussion join in a meditation that is created anew with each performance.