By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin"MUSICALLY, I'm a free-range chicken, a free range cellist, that's me," Yo-Yo Ma says, laughing at his own description.
Though highly acclaimed for his ensemble playing, Ma loves to experiment with musical styles, claiming his most valued work has come out of long-term planning, intensive study, and total immersion in the subject.
"The thing that makes this profession work for me is to make sure that everything I do is special or different, never to repeat something," said Ma, 43, in a telephone interview from his Boston home. "I don't just call things in, but take people on some kind of adventure."
The adventure continues in Honolulu tomorrow night when Ma performs with the Honolulu Symphony for the first time in a decade at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
The acclaimed cellist concedes that doing "a lot of different things musically" makes his life "a little crazy."
Whether performing a new concerto, revisiting a familiar work from the cello repertoire, reaching out to young audiences and student musicians, or exploring cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, Ma strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination.
The down side, Ma says, is this sort of work takes a lot of time to prepare.
"I have gotten more daring over the years," he said. "I don't ever want people to think I just call things in."
Over the past several seasons, Ma has joined Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo for performances and recordings of the piano quartet repertoire, including works of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Faur, Mozart and Schumann.
His long-standing partnership with Ax is one of the music world's most successful collaborations. During the 1995-96 season, they celebrated the 20th anniversary of their partnership with a recital tour culminating at Carnegie Hall as well as a special concert at Alice Tully Hall for PBS' "Live from Lincoln Center."
Ma has even joined forces with country fiddler Mark O'Connor and bassist Edgar Meyer on the Sony crossover album, "Appalachia Waltz." Ma's album, "Hush," with vocalist Bobby McFerrin was another project that raised eyebrows.
"I met Bobby, whose music I've always loved, at Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday party in New York City," Ma said. "Bobbie was trying to learn to conduct and we just hit it off. The chemistry was there."
The inspiration to do any project these days comes when "lightning strikes me," not from a corporate decision. Stay away from anything that destroys spontaneity, he urged.
"Making music is like planting seeds. Some grow well in certain places; some don't. And some grow differently in different places."
Ma comes across as someone enjoying life, his travels, meeting new people. He's unpretentious, a good listener, at ease regardless of the subject, as willing to learn as to instruct.
It's too convenient to focus strictly on Ma's awards -- 10 Grammys -- or his 45-plus albums for Sony Classical -- he's the label's biggest money maker. To understand Ma's music, first understand the man, listen to his views on life as a husband, father, or as he says "just being one human among billions."
"The hardest thing about my life is finding a constant equilibrium between home and performing," says Ma, who performs 80 concerts annually. "The two don't go together naturally. A family can't offer the same level of excitement and manic activity. But that's not what family's about anyway."
The secret?
"Don't believe your own press and leave the ego at the door."
Ma was 5 when he gave his first public recital; at 19 he was compared with such masters as Rostropovich and Casals. His musical experimentation began in college, which he calls "a huge point" in his life, being exposed to so many people as interested in their work as he was in his.
"Life offered so many possibilities," he said.
Born in Paris of Chinese parents, Ma began his cello studies with his father at 4. In 1962 he started at The Juilliard School and later would graduate from Harvard University.
"Much of what I'm doing now musically I started thinking about in college," said Ma, who's earned a distinguished international reputation as an ambassador for classical music and its vital role in society. "One of my goals is to understand and demonstrate how music serves as a means of communication in both Western and non-Western cultures."
To that end, Ma has immersed himself in projects as diverse as native Chinese music and its distinctive instruments, and the music of the Kalahari bush people in Africa.
"When I went to Africa (about eight years ago) it all had started from an anthropology course I took," he said. "I had found the music so haunting that I wanted to go check it out.
"I wanted to find out how these nomadic people's music and lifestyle would change as less and less land would be available to them."
And while Ma loves Hawaii, he's not inclined right now to do a Hawaiian music album because he doesn't know enough about the culture.
"I think the spark would be if I met somebody and something about (the culture) really strikes me. Any adventure has to start from the inside. I'm waiting for lightning to strike."
Understanding a culture is Ma's route to describing it musically, a process he calls "organic."
"Sure, you can make chickens grow faster by giving them hormones, but you pay a price in quality compared to free-range chickens. Call me a free-range musician."
On stage
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma joins the Honolulu Symphony and conductor Samuel Wong in celebrating the orchestra's 100th anniversary season
Ma concert sets stage
By Tim Ryan
for coming Pops season
Star-BulletinCALL it the Yo-Yo Ma syndrome.
Here's an artist so popular that tickets for his Honolulu Symphony performance March 17 were sold out in two weeks with literally 99 percent going to symphony subscribers who got first crack at the ducats. Only about 200 nonsubscribers got tickets.
That's a bit of foreshadowing about what you might expect when the symphony announces its 1999-2000 Classical and Pops season at the Ma concert. At least with the Pops and the nonsubscriber special events performances, be prepared for major surprises along the direction of the recent Kenny Loggins concert.
The Loggin's "event" last month was actually an experiment initiated by Pops conductor Matt Catingub with the blessing of symphony executive director Michael Tiknis. It was the first time the Honolulu Pops has shared the stage with an artist of Loggins' musical style.
"We're creating a new form of Pops, not the kind we've all become accustomed to, not Irish Celebration or Salute to Patriotism night," Catingub said in a telephone interview from San Francisco where he's recording a swing record.
The message the symphony wants to send is clear, Tiknis said.
"(It wants) to create an atmosphere with the Honolulu Pops that has major artists wanting to come here for their first (symphony) performances," he said. "We want all the major talent agencies like William Morris and ICM to know that with the Honolulu Pops they not only can do a symphony show but have someone by the name of Matt Catingub who has the ability to write the artist's music charts (scores)."
During the last six months, the orchestra has featured Maureen McGovern, Diane Schurr, the Smothers Brothers and Loggins. Coming this spring is Lou Rawls.
"We laid the groundwork with Kenny and now can show other artists what we're doing," said Catingub. "I keep wondering how we're going to top ourselves."
A major problem in getting top Pops performers who can attract baby boomers has been that the artists don't have charts of their music written for a symphony orchestra and they don't want to take the time or pay the money -- $25,000 to $50,000 for a typical symphony show -- to do it.
"When Matt writes these charts for the artist he's making a major contribution to the Honolulu Symphony," Tiknis said. "And the tradeoff is that artists will then work for us for a at reduced fee."
The symphony for some time has been after country singer K.D. Lang, who doesn't have charts for a symphony, but with Catingub, Tiknis said, "we may have the deal maker."
The Star-Bulletin has learned artists being considered for the upcoming Pops season and special performances calendar include: Kenny Rodgers, The Moody Blues, Linda Ronstadt, Jack Jones and Patti Paige. There also has been some discussion about Billy Joel, who has the same manager as Loggins.
The 1999-2000 Pops season will include seven pairs of Pops performances at the Blaisdell Concert Hall -- Friday and Saturday nights; four Starlight Series' concerts at the Waikiki Shell; and an undetermined number of "special performances" at the Shell.
It all points to a concerted effort for stature and name recognition for the Honolulu Symphony, Tiknis said.
"Because of Hawaii's unique location in being able to draw visitors from around the world, we are very serious that over the next five to 10 years that we build the Honolulu Pops into an organization that rivals, if not surpasses, the Boston Pops," Tiknis said.
Catingub said he's wanted to do something different with the Pops for a long time.
"We want to attract more diversified audiences like baby boomers who might not attend the Classical Series," he said. "We want to reach out to everyone."
Any changes will be moderate, Catingub promised, to not alienate the local traditional Pops audiences.
"Kenny was the first seed for what we really hope will grow into something very big for the Pops," Catingub said. "We want Honolulu Pops' name synonymous with something you must attend."
Budget concerns also will limit hiring too many artists of Loggins caliber. But Loggins reduced his usual fee since Catingub wrote the sheet music.
But improvements will be implemented next time around, including ensuring the orchestra is featured more prominently on some songs with the artist.
Other ideas were briefly discussed with Loggins that included recording or videotaping the concert. Logistically it would have been difficult and too costly the first time out, Catingub said.
"Maybe if we had more time ...s o much was happening so fast. Kenny didn't know me from Adam. We thought this would be pushing the envelop," he said. "But next time ... "
Back stage following the concert, an ecstatic Loggins told Catingub "We have to talk about another concert."
Loggins wants to do a Christmas children's program with the Honolulu Symphony at least by the end of next year Catingub said.
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